Of Claws and Dragonstones
by UnknownBlackHand
Summary: A continuation of my Dragonstone EPIC. Things have been looking up for the Dragon Chief, but what happens when terror lurks in the lands of their allies?
1. Chapter 1: The Night

**Chapter One: The Night**

**Brace yourselves.**

It was just before the sun had fully set, and they were alone in their room, sprawled out, sweating, and panting on the bed. You'd think that they made the beast with two backs, but their physical states really didn't add up to make the said beast completely. One lover was missing her right foot, and the other was missing part of his left leg.

Hiccup looked over to his wife with his Night Fury eyes and stroked her hair.

"Hiccup, you never stop surprising me… That was _wild_!" Astrid stated.

"Heh, that's a good term to use. It is the dragon mating season after all." He replied.

"Oh, great, I'm not going to lay another egg am I?" Astrid asked. Hiccup chuckled, recalling the time she laid their daughter's egg always made him laugh. Astrid punched him lightly in the arm and insisted that he answer her question.

"I think that's up to the fertility gods and whether or not they have a sense of humor." Hiccup replied, earning another small punch from Astrid.

The sun had set and Hiccup's breathing suddenly picked up. Knowing what that meant, Astrid deliberately kicked Hiccup off of the bed, and rolled over to his side. Hiccup had fallen onto a mat he made special for nights like this; this was one of Hiccup's Dragon Nights.

Astrid watched as her husband's skin was being overtaken with dark blue scales. With the occasional silver one thrown in; and although he looked like a Night Fury, he was actually a subspecies of the dragon, a Storm Fury. They were named after their ability to take in the lightning to charge their plasma blasts with it. Not only was Hiccup becoming one, but his niece, Midnightfire, was one as well.

At first, Hiccup was reluctant to have Astrid, or anyone for that matter, observe his bizarre metamorphosis's on his Dragon Nights, the ones where he was forced to become a dragon, but the changes fascinated her, and as long as she didn't say anything, Hiccup rarely even noticed that she was present.

The scales covered his body, his wings sprouted from his shoulders, his left leg grew back (the only part of his transformations that really bugged him), his nails became claws, and a full tail grew from his coccyx. With his change done, he staggered around the room trying to shake the dizzy spell that always followed afterwards.

The reason this was happening to Hiccup is because of this: After pretty much getting himself killed during a battle against Dagur the Deranged, a gem known as the Dragonstone aided him in his revival, and soon after that, he met up with Odin, Thor, and Loki. The gods blessed his stone, but Loki noticed that he had the soul of a dragon, and that soul needed wings; and so he gifted Hiccup's soul with physical wings, but at a small price. Now every once in a while, Hiccup _has_ to become a dragon to allow his draconic soul freedom. He could do this at will, and he does, but if he doesn't then the night awakens his inner dragon for him; or, he could pass off his Dragon Night to another person, unleashing their inner dragon, but that was usually if they were willing or if it was part of a punishment. This gift from Loki also gave him dragon eyes and a 'tattoo' of a dragon silhouette made up of scales on his left pectoral.

"Did you shake off that dizzy spell yet?" Astrid asked him. Hiccup looked over to her and noticed that she was wearing a necklace that allowed her to understand dragon speech. It was also a gift from Loki.

"Yeah, it's gone now." He replied.

"Alright; so what's the schedule for tonight?"

"I'll check on Anora, and then I'll be taking Whoshadow's hatchlings to Mulch and Bucket's farm to see if I can finally catch whoever's been stealing their livestock."

"That sounds like a plan; and will I be filling your position in the morning?" Astrid asked.

"No, my dad asked for it this time. It's almost Snoggletog, and he wanted to be in charge of the village decorating this year." Hiccup replied.

"Alright, then I think I get up for a while and make myself a snack. We can take a nap together when you get back." Astrid told him. Hiccup nuzzled her face with his snout before heading downstairs. There, his eyes fell upon the door to Anora's bedroom. He opened the door further and stepped into the room. His gaze fell upon his slumbering daughter with Midnightfire snuggled up next to her with a protective wing stretched over the child. Hiccup smiled, and who couldn't at a sight like that? However, the moment couldn't last. Hiccup had a thief to catch.

* * *

The night was cool, and with it being so close to Snoggletog, the ground was covered in snow; but there was no need to worry about tracks, as the snow was still falling from the sky. It was nearly impossible for human eyes to see where they were going. Still, this entity knew what they were doing, and was determined to get this task done.

Starting out at the chicken coop, the entity stashed two hens in a sack before heading over to the sheep pasture with a rope. The entity selected a large and extra wooly one and tied the rope around its neck.

As the entity was leaving the farm, a small dragon plastered itself to the entity's face and gave him a light shock; and the sound of a screaming dragon told the entity that his partner in crime was getting the same treatment, while a third one of the little buggers snatched the sack of chickens out of the entity's hand. A moment after that, the entity heard the sound of beating wings from a larger dragon, and sensed the beast landing.

The small dragon abandoned the entity's face, and the thief's identity was revealed as it locked eyes with a familiar Storm Fury.

"Chief, hi, how're you doing this lovely night?" He asked. Hiccup roared at him because his current physiology wouldn't allow him to speak, but this was what he was thinking: _Snotlout, _you're_ the one who's been thieving from you own tribe? How could you? A felon, in our family! This is the most embarrassing thing to happen to me since Cloudjumper dropped me in my parents' house when they were having sex!_

The Skrill hatchling that was plastered to Hookfang's face fluttered away, and Hiccup ordered the Monstrous Nightmare to grab his rider and haul him off to the jail where Snotlout will remain until Hiccup pronounced a sentence for his crime once he was human again. He directed his attention to the three Skrill hatchlings and told them: "Vastra, Enya, and Thorn, thank you for your help, and as a reward, I'll treat you to some good mutton in gravy in the afternoon. Goodnight to you now."

They were the three children of the Skrill known as Whoshadow; and as far as mischievous acts were concerned, they made Midnightfire and the Thorston twins look like a baby bunnies when compared to the chaos the Skrill hatchlings ensued. They were known for sneaking away from Whoshadow and sneaking into houses to raid the pantries, 'remodeling' the rooms, and giving the residents a good zap. The latter of these antics oftentimes had the people with insane hairdos. Stoick one ended up with a beard that ended up making him look like he was having an angry, bright orange, longhaired cat, attacking his face, which induced screaming fits of laughter from Hiccup, Valka, and their dragons.

Vastra and Enya were the girls, and they took after their partially insane mother, only more troublesome. Vastra had green eyes, and has an unusual taste for yak's milk. She was often seen suckling on one of the animals, and ended up getting chased away by the farmers. Enya, the only blue Skrill ever seen, was the most inquisitive in the clutch, and was usually the one raiding the pantries. If there was a door, sack, or a box anywhere around her, it was going to be opened. Now Thorn, took after his father. He was the one with the best behavior, but was usually the one who rearranged hairstyles.

_Ok, that was quite the event. Now, I think it's time to spread my wings and fly. _Hiccup thought to himself. As a Storm Fury, he could handle flying through high winds and precipitation better than a Night Fury. He was simply built for it.

* * *

**Ok I think that's an awkward, but fun start, and now you've met Whoshadow's hatchlings!**


	2. Chapter 2: The Day

**Chapter Two: The Day**

By the time Hiccup landed back on Berk, it was dawn, and the village had woken up to start up the Snoggletog decorating. He was exhausted, but to see the people happy was enough to make him smile.

"Good morning, Hiccup!" Mulch called out. He turned to face the short and stout farmer, and made a guttural sound in reply. Mulch walked over to the erect staff that held the community Dragonstone and asked Hiccup: "Did you catch that thief?"

"Yes, it was Snotlout, and I will sentence him in the afternoon." Hiccup replied.

"_Snotlout?_ That must've been embarrassing for you." Mulch said.

"He's definitely a disgrace to the family now, that's for sure."

"Well, thanks for catching him for us." Mulch replied. Hiccup nodded to him with a purr before taking a hike towards house; the villagers waved to him as he passed by.

Yeah, he didn't keep the fact that he _had_ to turn into a dragon every once in a while a secret. In fact he personally told everyone how his Dragon Nights worked, and why he would need someone to fill in for him in the mornings afterward.

He continued towards his house when Stoick and Valka caught his attention, they were on their dragons helping Gobber decorate the forge, and he found them trying to wave him over. He signed to himself and approached them.

"So, I took a look in the jail, and I found Snotlout in one of the cells. Was he the thief?" Stoick asked Hiccup once Shadowrath landed. Hiccup nodded.

"I always thought that boy was going to cause trouble." Gobber stated as he handed off another Snoggletog weapon.

"I take it that it was a good night otherwise." Valka spoke. Hiccup nodded in agreement, and then Valka added: "So, did Whoshadow's hatchlings give you any trouble?"

Hiccup shook his head.

"Now that I find hard to believe." Cloudjumper stated with Shadowrath nodding in agreement.

"It's true! They actually behave when you need them to cause problems for someone else. Also a little bribery helps them out." Hiccup told them.

"I still can't believe it, not after what they did to Stoick." Shadowrath replied.

"Alright, believe what you want to, I'm too tired for arguments right now." Hiccup told him. Shadowrath stepped out of his way to let Hiccup pass by. He looked over to his parents and told them that he'll see them later. Of course, all they heard were dragon sounds.

Hiccup finally reached his house, and turned to look back at the village. The dragons had migrated the other day ago. Cloudjumper and Shadowrath were among the few who stayed behind. Since the defeat of Dagur the Deranged three years ago, Cloudjumper had found a mate two years ago; but once his hatchlings were old enough to fly, they returned to the island their mother came from, which was the same island that was home to a Black Typhoon known as the Thunder Queen; so Cloudjumper still lived a life of bachelorhood. As for Shadowrath, well, he was a grandfather, so it would be awkward for Sapphire to have a sibling that was younger than her daughter. Speaking of Sapphire, she and Toothless flew off for the migration, not to lay any eggs, but so Toothless could watch over his dragons. It was an Alpha duty; and it left Hiccup and Astrid to take care of their hatchling.

Still, even without his best friend on the island, Hiccup smiled and headed inside the house.

"Morning, Daddy!" Anora exclaimed when she saw him. His ears perked up and he went over to her to nuzzle her dark auburn hair, which smelled like seawater. Midnightfire also flew down from her position on the rafters and landed by Hiccup and started playing with his tail.

"Yeah, Daddy's home, now come and eat your oatmeal, Anora; and Midnightfire, stop chewing on you uncle's tail!" Astrid told them. Hiccup bore a confused expression and wrapped his tail so he could see Midnightfire dangling off the very tip of it. Her jaws were clamped firmly on it but her teeth were retracted. Hiccup's pupils narrowed to slits and he snarled at her to let go. Midnightfire released her grip and dropped to the floor, where Hiccup spanked her with his tail. Midnightfire let out a squawk and glared at her uncle, but said nothing.

"Hey Dad, Cloudjumper wants to teach me how to fly. Can I go, please?" Anora asked.

"What did your mother day?" Hiccup asked her.

"I told her to ask you." Astrid stated as she started eating a bowl of oatmeal herself. Normally Hiccup would join them, but during his Dragon Nights, he often ate plenty of fish and wouldn't be hungry until he woke up from his nap.

"I don't see why she shouldn't at least have a few lessons. It will be good for her and you and Midnightfire could always join them to make sure nothing bad happens." Hiccup replied. Fortunately for Astrid, Stormfly was one of the few dragons that didn't land a mate this year. Deadly Nadders don't mate for life; it was just the way they were, although some jargon could be said about a gene pool.

"YES!" Anora cheered.

"Alright then, and did you catch the thief last night?" Astrid said.

"Yeah, it was Snotlout. I'll be sentencing him later on today; but I've got to repay Whoshadow's hatchlings for helping me before I do anything else after my nap." Hiccup replied.

"Wow, that's pretty big, and in that case, we'll go to the sentencing before we take Anora to her flying lesson. I'm sorry Anora, but this is very important. Now, Whoshadow's hatchlings, you actually got them to follow orders?" Astrid asked.

"Apparently they'll do anything for a big bucket of mutton and gravy." Hiccup told her. He reared up a bit and hugged her before going upstairs. He closed the door to the bedroom and reverted back to his human form. After throwing on a comfy tunic and trousers, army crawled across the floor, and he threw himself on the bed and fell right to sleep.

When Hiccup woke up and strapped on his false leg, and put on his flight suit deciding he would carry the mask that went with it. He only slept for four hours, but it was a deep sleep that went through its full cycle. So he quickly fixed his hair and went downstairs where he grabbed a quarter of a loaf of Helga the mace Menace's bread for a quick snack.

Hiccup then warmed up a big batch of mutton in gravy, dished it in three buckets for the hatchlings, and set out to find them.

He didn't have to look very hard.

Hiccup found Vastra, Enya, and Thorn playing in the snow in front of his house while being watched over by Whoshadow. Hiccup whistled at the hatchlings and they gathered at his feet, waiting for their treat.

The moment Hiccup set the buckets down, the hatchlings literally dove into them and started eating.

"Thanks for letting me borrow them last night, Whoshadow, they were a big help." Hiccup stated.

"It was my pleasure, and I'm glad that they didn't cause you any problems." Whoshadow replied.

"You have know idea how relieved I am to be able to tell you that. So, are you going to the sentencing?" Hiccup asked.

"Oh yes, the last time you gave a good sentence, I got to blow a wretched villain to smithereens!"

"There won't be any explosions for this one, but there may be a loss of dignity. I think that you might find it amusing." Hiccup replied. Whoshadow grinned and told him that she'd be there.

Hiccup found Astrid and Anora at his parents' house. He was quite glad to find them there, as he wanted to clarify something with Stoick.

"Hiccup, I wasn't expecting you to wake up at this time." Astrid stated.

"As long as I've slept, I'll be fine." He replied. He turned to his father and asked him: "What's the usual penalty for thieving livestock again?" It was actually a good question to ask, the Hooligan tribe had all sorts of penalties for different crimes, but it also depended on the criminal and how many other crimes they've committed.

"Usually we sentence them to hard labor under those they've stolen from, and have them return the stolen property… and I do believe that it is Bucket and Mulch's turn to clean the dragon stables this week." Stoick replied with a smug hidden underneath his moustache. Even Valka suppressed a snigger. Anora and Astrid, on the other hand, laughed out loud, as Snotlout had to clean up the stables not too long ago; and just because there were plenty of dragons gone for the migration, didn't mean that there wasn't enough dragon shit to clean up.

"Also, hasn't Snotlout been pestering you about taking over one of your Dragon Nights?" Astrid asked.

"Yeah, he really wants to 'unleash his inner dragon', and he's pretty confidant that he would be one of the more powerful and strongest dragons to take to the skies." Hiccup replied with a chuckle. The Trickster God of Mischief once told them about what dragon Snotlout would become, and it was going to be good.

* * *

They were gathered in the Great Hall, where Gobber hauled in Snotlout in his shackles, and once he brought Snotlout for read the charges: "Snotlout Jorgenson, you've been found guilty in committing several thefts of livestock. Your punishment: You will be sentenced to two weeks of hard servitude to Bucket and Mulch, in Dragon Chief style."

The Hooligans applauded, but they were a bit worried about the sentence; _'Dragon Chief style'_ meant that he would have to be in a dragon form to serve his sentence, and Snotlout was pretty smug about it.

"So, cousin, I see that you've finally come around to allowing me to unleash my inner dragon warrior." Snotlout spoke with a smug as Hiccup approached him.

"Yes, but you'll be serving Bucket and Mulch, and they're not the warrior types." Hiccup replied. He plastered a hand on Snotlout's face, charged up the power of the Dragonstone inside him, and discharged a bolt of magic into Snotlout.

In the end of the transformation, the crowd burst into uproarious laughter, including the dragons! Snotlout's form had been replaced with a bright pink and yellow Deadly Nadder!

"WHAT! WHAT THE F*** DID YOU DO TO ME, HICCUP?!" Snotlout screamed.

He caught his breath, and told Snotlout: "I didn't do anything but _'unleash you inner dragon warrior'_ when I transfer these powers onto another person, I can't pick what they become, but your soul does!"

In a fit of rage, Snotlout sounded a war cry and beat his wings until he was airborne; but he only stayed in the air for a few seconds before he lost control and fell down with a hard 'SPLAT'. Hiccup took a look at his wings and noticed that one of them was missing a finger, just like Snotlout's human hand! This meant that Snotlout could only fly as well as a Night Fury missing a tailfin. He could get airborne, but he wouldn't be going very far.

At first, Hiccup felt sympathetic towards his cousin, but then he realized that it would keep Snotlout from flying away, and so he was less sympathetic. However, he was a bit confused as to why his wing was missing a finger. After all, his leg grew back during his Dragon Nights, but then again, Astrid's missing foot didn't grow back when she turned into a Stormcutter. So, he wondered if it was something that he could control during the changes. He'll find it out later; he called over Hookfang to help his pink rider up, and tied a rope around Snotlout's neck before handing him off to Bucket and Mulch. The rope was a little demeaning, but they didn't make shackles for dragons.

* * *

With the Great Hall cleared out now, and no further problems going on in the village, the Haddock family met up with Cloudjumper and Valka for Anora's flying lesson.

Anora had assumed her dragon form the moment she stepped out of the Great Hall after the sentencing, and they rode over there on Stormfly; but in case Anora did get airborne, Hiccup would borrow Shadowrath from his father.

"Alright, little one, we'll start with some basic flapping exercises." Cloudjumper spoke. He demonstrated how he moved both pairs of wings on their own and together. Anora mimicked the movements as Cloudjumper showed her.

"Well, I think you've got some pretty good control over them. Wouldn't you say you say so, Shadowrath?" Cloudjumper said.

"Yes, she does look like she's a hatchling ready to fly." The Night Fury replied.

"Ok, Anora, you're ready to take off now, but we're going to take this nice and slow. First, you're going to watch how I fly." Cloudjumper stated. All the while, Hiccup had taken a hold of his mother's hand so she could understand the conversations between the dragons. As was with holding the Dragonstone, if a person held Hiccup's hand, they would understand the dragon speech. Toothless meant to leave his Dragonstone behind for Valka for the migration, but it completely slipped his mind, and Midnightfire wasn't good at sharing yet.

Cloudjumper stood at the edge of a cliff, his four wings were stretched out, and he jumped off the cliff in a gliding take off. He showed off how to take some easy turns and how to hover for a while as he beat his wings in the two styles a Stormcutter could. Hiccup and Astrid mounted the dragons, and Cloudjumper returned for Valka as Anora stood at the edge of the cliff with her wings stretched out. She looked over the drop to the sea and she started to have second thoughts about this whole ordeal.

"Relax, Anora, I know it's up high, but your wings and family will catch you." Midnightfire told her. She took a deep breath and leapt.

The other dragons immediately took flight after Anora made her jump. She was gliding in the beautiful X-wing position. She stroked her wings and picked up some height. Seeing her flying so well filled Hiccup's heart with joy. Anora was flying for the first time! Hiccup couldn't contain himself in Shadowrath's saddle anymore. He deliberately spilled out of it, and opened up his flying-squirrel suit to glide by Anora.

Shadowrath rolled his red-violet eyes before positioning himself closer to Hiccup when he needed to be caught.

"You crazy human! Are you trying to give your family a scare?" Shadowrath snapped at Hiccup. After the accident where the villagers and dragons thought Hiccup was killed, just about everyone broke into a sweat when they saw Hiccup using this suit to fly.

"Relax, Shadowrath, everything is under control. It's not like we're being attacked right now." He replied.

"Yeah, you're getting back on my saddle, _now._" He told him before grabbing Hiccup with his claws. Hiccup maneuvered into Shadowrath's saddle and closed up his flying-squirrel suit as Shadowrath snarled: "If you pull that stunt again, you'll be on your own for being caught."

"I think you've been hanging around my father too much, you've been acting like him quite a bit around me lately." Hiccup replied. Despite his desire to defy Shadowrath's order, Hiccup stayed put in Shadowrath's saddle, and watched as Anora figured out how to take tighter turns and pick up speed.

* * *

By sundown, the family landed back on Berk, in front of Valka and Stoick's house. Anora reverted back to her human form and started dancing in the snow.

"I take it that the flying lessons went well." Stoick stated.

"She was wonderful, Stoick." Valka replied with a beaming smile.

"She was amazing, Dad, and thanks for letting me borrow Shadowrath." Hiccup added as he dismounted. Once he was on the ground, Shadowrath swept his tail, and knocked him off of his feet. With his pupils narrowing to slits, Hiccup popped out of the snow asking Shadowrath: "What was _that_ for?"

"It's just a warning to tell you not to jump out of my saddle while flying… and because I have a sense of humor." He replied with a toothy smile.

"Well, how's about we go inside and have or own little celebration? It's Snoggletog eve and we've got a good boar roasting on a spit right now." Stoick told the family. With smiles all around, they all went inside for supper.

* * *

**Yay, Anora flies, and Snotlout got his just deserts! **

**A fair warning, I'm probably not going to update as fast as I used to; but please review. **


	3. Chapter 3: Claude on Snoggletog

**Chapter Three: Claude on Snoggletog**

**Charm Caster 1127, in regards to your last review: Whatever you're high on, I'll take two.**

It was the morning of Snoggletog. Claudette was woken up by the sound of Whoshadow's hatchlings fluttering about and chattering. Fishlegs, on the other hand, was woken up to the feeling of Thorn poking his feet with his nose.

"Whoshadow, will you tell your kids to be quiet?" Claudette asked.

Whoshadow woke up and made a sound to her hatchlings, which seemed to be the way she told the hatchlings to come over to her. They stopped what they were doing and grouped around their mother, who regurgitated breakfast for them. At the sound of her gagging, Claudette got out of bed saying: "Suddenly, I no longer feel tired."

She put on a fresh set of clothes and shook Fishlegs to get him to get up.

"Happy Snoggletog, honey." She said, kissing him.

"Wow, you look like a princess today." Fishlegs declared. It was no exaggeration, Claudette was wearing a full dress; it was about the same color as Whoshadow's scales, but it wasn't that ornate; the skirt was three layers with no decals, not even lace, on it. The neckline on it was at least lined with lace, and the sleeves had a sense of fashion to them, but it was clear that this dress was meant for a princess, just not for a formal occasion.

"Thank you. You don't look to bad yourself." Claudette replied. With a confused face, he threw off the covers, and found that Claudette had changed his clothes while he was sleeping. He went from his Viking garb, to the finer dressings of Claudette's kingdom. However, these were more casual wear.

"Remember, Hiccup and Astrid invited over to have Snoggletog with them." She stated. Fishlegs freshened up and gathered the gifts for everyone and threw them in a sack. Whoshadow took the sack in her jaws, and they headed over to the Haddock house.

During the walk over there, Enya, Whoshadow's blue hatchling, kept fluttering up to the sack in her mother's maw trying to figure out what was inside it. She earned a warning growl from her mother though. When that didn't work, Whoshadow spanked the hatchling with her tail.

"Honestly, Enya, you need to learn how to suppress your curiosity." Claudette told her. She held out her arm for Enya to perch on, and the hatchling fluttered over to her. Claudette gave her chin a scratch as Fishlegs knocked on the door to the Haddock house.

"Hey Fishlegs, Claudette, it's good to see you!" Astrid greeted. She looked over to a glaring Whoshadow and told her: "It's good to see my favorite Skrill here too. Here, let me take that sack out of your mouth."

Vastra, Enya, and Thorn didn't take long to find Anora and Midnightfire and start up games with them.

"Enya, Thorn, Vastra, keep the sparking to a minimum; and Anora, try to stay human for the day." Hiccup told them. Anora gave him sad eyes; it was much easier for her to wrestle with the Skrills and Midnightfire as a Stormcutter.

"Oh, alright." She sighed, but then she added: "But if you change, then so do I."

"Or I could send you to your time-out chair." Hiccup replied.

"Easy, Hiccup, it's Snoggletog! A time for happiness and cheer." Astrid said.

"I'm just making sure that she doesn't grow up to be like Snotlout."

"You're a good father, Hiccup, and that will never happen. Now, come and help me with the food." Astrid told him.

They started preparing choice cuts of yak meat to be roasted and seasoned on a spit. Helga popped in earlier with a big basket full of her bread, and she did that for every house on Snoggletog. So with fresh bread, roasting meat, and spiced rum, the house smelled delicious to the point where Vastra tried stealing a bite out of the yak. She had to be pulled away from the spit by Stormfly or Whoshadow by grabbing her tail.

"Loki must be so proud of them." Hiccup told Whoshadow.

"They're just being hatchlings… but they do keep me on my toes." She replied.

Valka and Stoick soon arrived with their dragons, and Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

"What's so funny?" Fishlegs asked him.

"It's a bit ironic that, aside from you, I'm the only one in this house who doesn't have a dragon here."

"For the Dragon Chief, that is ironic." Valka started. The Skrill hatchlings looked up and fluttered over to her to give their greetings, and then they returned to wrestle with Anora and Midnightfire. The hatchlings were fond of Valka as they enjoyed the attention they got when she taught her students about their breed.

"So, Hiccup, yesterday's sentencing was your best since Dagur's execution." Stoick stated. Chuckles sounded all around the house.

"We can't say that Snotlout didn't deserve it." Hiccup replied.

"It was interesting though. I heard you say that you don't pick what dragons the people become; the outcomes are determined by the person's soul who goes through the change." Fishlegs said.

"That's right."

"Doesn't it make you curious? Do you ever wonder what other people's inner dragons might be?" Fishlegs asked. Hiccup glanced around the room at the other humans before saying: "I wonder about it about once a day; even more when it's the day of one of my Dragon Nights. Some people are more obvious than others; like I'm sure that Alvin the Treacherous is a Rumblehorn. Bucket and Mulch, most likely Gronkles or Hobblegrunts; Silent Sven would definitely be a Whispering Death. Then, there are some people who I'm not so sure about; and you're one of them, Fishlegs. You're smart, brave, gentle, you look out for others as well as yourself, and no one wants to mess with you when you're angry. It's not an easy combination to figure out. I may have better sight with these dragon eyes, but I can't see into someone to find their inner dragon."

Several glances were flashed between the other people as Hiccup spoke. Astrid already knew her inner dragon, but everyone else didn't; sure, Claudette became a Guardian, but her inner dragon could've changed as that event took place over three years ago, and she was not the same person she was before. Valka and Stoick were also wildcards; Valka loved all dragons equally, she just had a stronger connection with Cloudjumper; and Stoick, being a warrior with brawn to spare and a true sense of love, could easily be anything from a Night Fury, Thunderdrum, Rumblehorn, Monstrous Nightmare, and other breeds.

"If you're thinking what I think you are, I can reserve one of my Dragon Nights for each of you if you ever want to find out." Hiccup told them. The Vikings looked into their own minds and hearts and debated Hiccup's offer.

Nobody answered to Hiccup's proposal at that time. He really wasn't expecting it anyway. Instead, he turned his attention to the food for a while, everything was fine there, and then he asked: "Should we open up presents now?"

Around came the parcels, there were more clothes than weapons this year. From a cloak made of scales the dragons shed, to a newly written book of the history of Berk (by Fishlegs of course). The gifts from Claudette were the most interesting though. They ranged from the finer clothes from her kingdom, and baskets of imported fruits, spices, and chocolates.

"Wow, look at all of these pears!" Astrid exclaimed. Whoshadow grimaced at the word, Cloudjumper and Shadowrath stuck out their tongues in disgust, and Stormfly let out an alarmed squawk. Dragons don't like pears; they were like the eels of fruits, except eating them didn't make them sick.

Still, the reactions from the dragons didn't hinder Astrid from slicing a couple of the pears and sharing them with everyone. She was a bit reluctant to offer Hiccup one, because of the dragons' reactions, but he was brave enough to try one anyway. Despite the fact he was part dragon now, he still had enough of his human taste to enjoy the sweet, tender, flesh of the pear with a flavor like a sweet apple. The only thing he didn't like about the pear was the bitter skin.

The dragons looked at him as if he'd gone crazy.

"What? It was good; and don't forget I've got some human left in me." He told them, and they backed off.

"Try to not get them too close to Whoshadow, otherwise she'll have a panic attack." Claudette warned.

"Then why did you bring her?" Astrid asked her. She didn't really have an answer. Valka checked on the yak roast and announced: "The food's done!" The company got up, grabbed their plates, and helped themselves. A large platter of fish, chicken, and mutton was given to the dragons, and they began to chow down, when they heard the trilling of a Terrible Terror as it scratched on the door.

Fishlegs got up and answered it. He immediately noticed that the little red Terrible Terror was a familiar face.

"Claudette, it's Claude, from your kingdom!" He announced as he picked up the dragon.

"Really? What does the letter say?" She asked. Fishlegs relieved the dragon of its letter and handed it to his wife. She looked it over with widening eyes before announcing: "My parents will be retiring, and my brother is going to be crowned King!"

"Well that is great news." Stoick replied.

"Yeah, and the best part is that they want as many friends and family to attend the coronation! You guys are invited, _and_ so are our dragons!" Claudette exclaimed.

"It sounds great, so when's the coronation, and what have you told your parents about Berk recently?" Hiccup asked.

"We would have to leave by ship in three days in order to get there and have two days to recover from the traveling. Now, they do know about you and your daughter as far as the eyes are concerned, but I couldn't figure out a way to tell them about your Dragon Nights and your ability to change form at will that didn't sound so awkward. I also felt that it was your news to tell. I've also told them about Dagur's execution and just about all the major events after that." Claudette replied.

"Thank you, yeah, I would prefer to keep the facts about my Dragon Nights to myself." Hiccup told her.

Claude was helping himself to the food for the dragons' feast.

As dinner came to a close, Hiccup heard a faint noise coming from outdoors. It wasn't just him; it was the adult dragons too.

Without a word, Hiccup bolted for the door and looked to the sky.

"The dragons are back!" He called out, and suddenly Fishlegs was standing beside him. Hiccup heard the voice of his best friend and felt the urge to fly up to meet him, but he resisted.

Vikings were stepping out of there houses to meet them, even Snotlout showed his pink and yellow face; but as Snotlout stepped into the center plaza, there came the screech of a Night Fury, and the pink and yellow Deadly Nadder was tackled to the ground.

As Hiccup rushed over to get Toothless off of his cousin, Meatlug met up with a cheerful Fishlegs.

"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup shouted. The Night Fury was still wrestling with the unfamiliar Deadly Nadder. Snotlout slipped out of his grasp at one point and tried to fly off, but with that missing finger he only made it two buildings over.

"Toothless, stop! It's Snotlout!" Hiccup cried out. Toothless snapped his attention to Hiccup saying: "That's _Snotlout,_ as in your _cousin_?"

"Yeah."

Toothless snapped his attention back to the pink and yellow Deadly Nadder and threw himself onto the ground laughing… The same thing happened with Sapphire when she found out.

"Come on let's go inside and enjoy Snoggletog." Hiccup told them, noticing that his cousin was glaring at them.

"Did my eyes deceive me, or did Toothless just pummel Snotlout?" Astrid asked when they made it back to the house.

"To be fair, Snotlout would've been able to help himself if he know how to use his spines and could fly." Hiccup replied.

"Whoa, Snotlout can't fly at all?" Toothless asked.

"He can get airborne, but he's missing a finger in one of his wings, which means he flies as well as you could when you were missing a tailfin. By the way, it turned out that he was the livestock thief." Hiccup replied.

"Huh… Too bad for him." Toothless replied.

They went inside the house where they caught Toothless up with the events that occurred while he was away, and was quite pleased to hear about the message Claude brought. He loved big trips like that.

* * *

**PLEASE HELP!**

**I want to know what you guys think the inner dragons should be for other characters. NO MULTI-HEADED DRAGONS PLEASE. **

**The characters I'm most interested in hearing about are mainly Claudette, Fishlegs, Valka, and Stoick.**

**P.S. Pears and Death will return if this chapter gets less than 10 reviews that answer my inquiry about the inner dragons by my next two updates.**


	4. Chapter 4: Call of the Wind

**Chapter Four: Call of the Wind **

**For those of you, who said that Valka was a 'Thunder Queen', let me just clear something up for you. The Thunder Queen was the dragon's name, but its breed was a Black Typhoon. I apologize it there was any confusion, but yeah Thunder Queen is a Black Typhoon.**

It was two days before departure for Claudette's kingdom. In regards to Snotlout's sentence, Hiccup was conflicted. He had no idea how long they could be gone, and as the man who sentenced him, he was the only one who had the authority to pardon Snotlout, and he wouldn't like anyone freeing him from his sentence. However, on that day he noticed how other dragons were actually taking the opportunity to mock and torture his cousin as he was assisting Bucket and Mulch's chores. He finally decided that Snotlout would've suffered enough by the day they were ready to set sail, and Bucket and Mulch were running out of tasks for Snotlout to do.

He kept his decision to himself, and he wandered about the village with Vastra snapping at his prosthetic.

"You're not a Smothering Smokebreath, so quit trying to steal my leg." Hiccup told her. The Skrill hatchling hissed at him and spread her wings in defiance. Hiccup cast a stern look at her and stated: "Now, you wouldn't want me to tattle on you to Toothless and your mother; so I suggest that you better start behaving and go back to your mother." Vastra glared at him, but spread her wings and fluttered away.

Hiccup kept himself busy by making sure that those who were staying behind would be prepared for everything that could possibly come their way. His usual acting Chiefs were coming along for the trip, and so he requested Chief Goosefoot and a handful of Berserkers to help watch over the island while he was away.

Well, there was still plenty of food for the people to eat, melted snow would provide fresh water, and their primary defenses were prepared for in case of an attack. All they needed was for Goosefoot to arrive and they were good to go.

Goosefoot became the Berserker Chief when Dagur was imprisoned on Outcast Island; when Dagur returned to his homeland after escaping said prison, and regained his position as the Berserker Chief, after one battle he 'killed' Hiccup, and that was when Goosefoot committed treason to stop Dagur with a round robin. He risked a lot to help the Hooligans, and pretty soon after Hiccup's revival, Goosefoot became Berk's most loyal ally.

However, Goosefoot wasn't due to arrive until the day they were ready to set sail to Claudette's kingdom. Sure, they could ride their dragons there, but it would be a very long flight, and Hiccup kind of wanted to keep Snotlout in his dragon form until they just about landed on Claudette's kingdom to continue his sentence, and Snotlout can't fly.

Speaking of his pink and yellow cousin, Hiccup was passing by Bucket and Mulch's farm when he noticed Snotlout hauling in firewood for the farmers, when they relieved Snotlout of his load, they took a break from their chores and he tried flying again, only to crash with a face-plant in the snow.

Hiccup heard the sound of approaching footsteps behind him, and saw that they belonged to his mother. She looked between him and Snotlout and stated: "From what I've observed today, he actually makes a better dragon than a person."

"Well he set the bar pretty low for himself. Yeah, I agree; and I think that the breed, color, and his inability to fly humbled him." Hiccup replied.

"His missing finger doesn't seem to be hindering his determination to stay in the air." Valka stated.

"Well getting airborne on your own feels pretty good, but actually flying by your own wings feels beyond amazing."

"Remind me to sign up for one of your Dragon Nights then." Valka told Hiccup.

"Heh, are you sure you want to do that? You could end up being pink too."

"I love every dragon in every color, so I can handle it."

"Alright, but Fishlegs talked to me about my Dragon Night offer, so you're in line after him." Hiccup replied. He turned around and was greeted with a wonderful gust of wind. He closed his eyes and breathed in the sweet breeze; and deep inside of him, he felt his dragon wings extend. When he opened his eyes, he noticed that his scales had a slight irritation. Sometimes the weather had a factor in triggering one of Hiccup's Dragon Nights, but at this intensity of irritation, he wouldn't change at nightfall, but it did give him an appetite for raw fish and the urge to take flight.

"That's a nice breeze coming in, and the dragons seem to be enjoying it too." Valka stated.

"It's a good breeze for flying. I hope it keeps up, it will be great air for Anora to practice with." Hiccup replied.

"It looks like she thinks so too." Valka told him, pointing to a small Stormcutter being chased by Midnightfire. Hiccup's eyes narrowed a bit but then he told his daughter: "Anora, no flying over the rooftops without adult supervision."

After hearing that, Sapphire volunteered to watch over them by leaping up to the roof of a house.

Hiccup was about to track down Toothless to take him flying, but then…

"AHH, GET OU' O MY SHOP YOU SPARKING BRATS!" Gobber screamed from the forge. Hiccup and Valka ran over there to help Gobber out. Sure enough, Vastra, Enya, and Thorn were tearing around the place. The blacksmith caught Vastra with a prosthetic that worked like a butterfly net. It was great for removing one stray hatchling or terrible terror, but not for three crazed Skrills.

Valka snuck up on Thorn and threw a sack over him, and Hiccup timed a jump and caught Enya by the tail, and she let out a shriek that alerted her mother. So when Whoshadow landed outside the forge, she was ready to fight, but then she saw that her hatchlings were causing trouble again.

"Children, how many times do I have to tell you to stay out of Gobber's forge?" Whoshadow snarled when the group handed the hatchlings over to her. She herded them away from the forge and was sure to punish them after that.

With trouble out of the way, Hiccup found Toothless and fitted his saddle on him. They took flight and Sapphire had their girls follow after them for a nice flight with just the fathers and daughters.

When they gained enough height, Hiccup looked down to Toothless and asked him: "How about we play it like we did before the Dragonstone days?" That was his code for Toothless when he would spill out of the saddle and fly alongside the dragons. He sat upright and tipped overboard with Toothless and the girls following after him. Hiccup and Toothless locked eyes and smiled; Toothless' tongue hung out and flopped around a bit. Then, Hiccup adjusted himself, and opened up his flying-squirrel suit, and Toothless spread out his wings. Anora caught up to her father and smiled to him.

Before any disasters could happen, Toothless and Hiccup coordinated with each other and Hiccup was back in the saddle, and Anora figured out how to perch on Hiccup's shoulder as Toothless was going in for a landing. At contact, Anora hopped off Hiccup's shoulder and returned to her human form.

The next couple of days passed fairly slowly, but soon enough, Goosefoot arrived on the back of his Skrill, Vengeance. By this time, Berk's ships were ready to set sail for Claudette's kingdom, and people were already boarding.

The only thing keeping their departure was Whoshadow's visit with her mate, Vengeance. Although they often visited each other, their reunions always seemed as if they'd been apart for months.

"C'mon Whoshadow, there and bananas and mutton waiting for you at our destination, now lets go!" Claudette urged, but it took Toothless to pry the two Skrills away from each other.

"You'll see him again eventually." Toothless told her. They were the last two dragons to board a ship, and after that, they pushed off the land and set sail.

Little did they know was that there was a great adventure waiting for them at their destination…

* * *

"Your Majesty, we've lost another one." The knight told King Hubert. He signaled his comrades to enter the throne room and to the King's horror, they brought in the mangled remains of not only another knight, but also one of his closest friends.

"How can it be? He was such a strong warrior." Hubert said, his eyes welling up with tears.

"He put up a good fight… but whatever that thing in the forest is, it was too brutal and too quick. We still don't know what it is." The knight replied. Hubert blew his nose, and the knight added: "I'm sorry for your loss, I know how close you two were. Now, should we set up traps?"

"I don't think that will be wise. My daughter is bringing friends and dragons here for Prince Salomon's coronation, should one of the beasts get caught in one of them, I am sure that they would be thoroughly displeased."

"My King, perhaps we should postpone the coronation. I don't think it would be wise for you to retire while we're dealing with this 'monster' problem. Perhaps we should enlist the help of the Vikings to solve this problem, and once that's done, then we can crown your son."

"I have been considering it, but first we need to see if they are willing to help us. For right now, I want to post extra guards on night watch. Also, keep the remains on ice, the Vikings may want to look at it if they choose to help us." Hubert replied.

"It will be done." The knight stated. He bowed to his king and carried out his orders.


	5. Chapter 5: Voyage be Damned

**Chapter Five: Voyage be Damned**

"We stored the body in the coldest area of the dungeon, and we've been continuously adding snow on it." The knight told King Hubert.

"Thank you. Claude arrived with a message that the Berkians are on their way. Keep up the good work."

"My King, I also come bringing bad news too."

"Well, out with it." King Hubert sighed.

"The monster somehow got through the walls and has destroyed the forge. The blacksmith was knocked unconscious but is alive, but unfortunately, he never got a look at the creature." The knight replied.

It was great feeling the salty sea air blowing in their faces as they were sailing. While the wind was catching in the sails nicely, Ruffnut's Scauldy had been towing the ship to make it go faster. It was the Scauldron's choice to do this, and at least they would get to their destination a bit sooner.

The ship was the largest Berk had ever constructed. They got the idea for the design not long after the execution of Dagur the Deranged from King Hubert. Below the massive deck there were small cabins to sleep in, a huge holding area for the dragons where they can come onto the deck at their own will, food storage, and a kitchen. The ship was used special for long trips now and the only weapons on board were whatever the Vikings carried with them and the dragons.

As Hiccup looked over the bow of the ship, feeling the wind on his face, his scales itched a little bit but not intense enough to tell him that this was one of his Dragon Nights, but he may just have to find an excuse to go dragon. He turned away from the bow to check on their heading with Fishlegs. Fishlegs's strong point when sailing, or flying, was navigation, and without a need for oarsmen and misconduct going about the ship; he would have plenty of time on his hands.

"Hey, Fishlegs; oh, and hello, Claudette, how're you doing in here?" Hiccup asked.

"We're doing well, Chief, Ruffnut's Scauldron is maintaining course, and at this pace we should expect to arrive at the kingdom in two days." Fishlegs replied. Hiccup was about to respond to that when he heard the growling of Fishlegs's stomach.

"You're doing a good job, Fishlegs, now how's about I bring you something to eat?" He said.

"Thanks Hiccup, I'd rather not leave the cabin. The waves are a bit more aggressive than I like them to be." Fishlegs replied. Hiccup shook his hand and told him to keep up the good work, but then quickly asked Claudette: "Would your kingdom mind if we all showed up wearing our typical clothing?"

"They'll expect me, and most likely Fishlegs too, to be wearing the clothing of our people, but I think they'll understand if you show up wearing whatever you prefer." She replied.

"Thank you, Claudette." Hiccup stated. He shook her hand and took his leave for the kitchen to bring back something for the lovers.

Upon opening the door to the kitchen, Hiccup was welcomed to the scent of Helga the Mace Menace's baking with Tuffnut helping her out where he could. The place was a mess of flour, but the mere scent of Helga's baking made up for it. Her baked goods were fit for the gods. Hiccup also noted that she was working with ginger, an edible root that they received from the traders every so often.

"Wow, it smells great in here." Hiccup stated.

"I'm making my ginger pear bred, it should be just about done." Helga replied.

"That sounds nice, I'll have to try some later; but right now I'm here to get a plate for Fishlegs and Claudette."

"I've been smoking some fish, it should be just about done now." Tuffnut told Hiccup as he was kneading some dough. Hiccup helped himself to some fish, and then Helga pulled out the ginger pear bread, it smelled absolutely scrumptious.

"The woman knows how to bake." Tuffnut stated, as he smiled over to his wife.

"If we fought with her bread instead of weapons, we could've taken over the world." Hiccup replied as he took a couple slices of the bread. He gave the pair a nod as he returned to the Ingerman's cabin.

"I see that Helga's been baking." Claudette stated as Hiccup handed them their plates.

"Yeah, she's got the kitchen covered in flour. She's also got Tuffnut in there with her kneading the dough." He replied.

"Well at least it keeps him out of trouble." Claudette spoke. Hiccup nodded in agreement, and was about to take his leave when the door opened, and Ruffnut with Eret came inside.

"Chief, we have a situation on deck." Eret stated.

"What is it?" He asked calmly.

"We've spotted ships approaching us, they could be pirates." Ruffnut replied with eagerness in her voice. Hiccup sighed and told her: "Get Tuffnut and Helga and tell them to be prepared to attack in these ships turnout to be hostile. I'll alert Toothless."

They split up to get their tasks done, but eventually Hiccup ended up at the bow of the ship watching the other ships draw nearer through a spyglass. There were seven ships, all of them bearing the flag of Butterbutt the Merciless, a pirate captain who commandeered his ships and took on every other ship he came across, including other pirate ships. His attacks were brutal, and he never took prisoners, only new recruits, those who refused to serve him, ended up dead. So, despite his comical name he was one of the most feared pirates to ever sail the seas. However, the thought that Butterbutt had stolen a lot of gold and jewels, made the thought of removing him as a scourge of the seas made the sound of his defeat even more satisfying. He wasn't that interested in the gold personally, but he knew that his fellow Vikings would love to go down in history as the tribe who finally defeated Butterbutt.

"Toothless, I need you to tell Scauldy to stop the ship. This attack is going to need a bit of planning if we want to defeat the captain and loot the ships… and I'm going to want to pardon Snotlout." Hiccup said. Toothless gave the order to stop the ship, and Hiccup rounded up the sailors.

"Alright, listen up! Butterbutt the Merciless is going to attack us. Obviously with our weapons and dragons, we can defeat him, however, we don't want to just go into battle and sink his ships. Butterbutt has a lot of precious loot and I say if we're going to go down in history as the tribe who defeated him, we might as well make the most of this opportunity. Now, here's the plan for attack: The Thorstons go in first and cause a distraction, I need you to get all crewmembers on board on the decks of the ships. Be on the lookout for any weapons such as cannons, and under no circumstances are you blow anything up until I give you the signal. Once the crewmembers are on deck, we send in the first wave being: Gobber, Stoick, Astrid, Fishlegs, Eret, and Snotlout." Hiccup started. Snotlout gave a surprised squawk.

"You heard me correctly, Snotlout, you'll be pardoned and you'll get to ride Hookfang again today. Now the only ship that will not be attacked is the far one on the right, as that is the ship we know Butterbutt keeps people to sell off as slaves. Stoick, you get the center ship, where you'll find Butterbutt your main job is to take care of him once we release the second wave. The second wave is your reinforcements: Claudette, Valka, Helga and Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Spitelout, after that Toothless will send out more dragons and we'll join you. When the second wave hits, the first wave goes in to loot it. Once we're done looting, we blow up the ships we loot, execute Butterbutt, and come back here to celebrate." Hiccup announced. Then he assigned the riders with the ships he wanted them to attack: Snotlout got the treasure ship; Gobber, the trade ship (filled with tools, weapons, metals, fabrics, etc.); Fishlegs, the food ship; Eret, the medical ship; Astrid, the archives ship. The second wave would get their choice between the ships, save for the archives, Hiccup would aid Astrid there, while the dragons flew over to where they felt they were needed the most. There were about seven dragons (excluding Midnightfire) that wouldn't be attacking without a rider. The six riders remaining (six because Sapphire wasn't bonded to anyone) would be holding the ship on course.

"Now, if you find something that we have plenty of on Berk, (with the exception of food) don't take it. We have a limited time frame, and we can't be busy taking things we already have; so, for the weapons, look for uniqueness, Goober and Stoick; no broadswords, or maces. Now, to arms!" Hiccup announced. The Vikings threw their fists into the air and got ready. Snotlout was returned to his human form and he eagerly saddled up on Hookfang.

"Hey Chief, thanks for assigning me to the treasure ship!" Snotlout called out.

"You're welcome, and don't make me regret it!" Hiccup replied as he saddled up on Toothless.

Once on deck, Hiccup signaled for the Thorstons to go in. Barf and Belch took to the sky, while Scauldy took the sea for more stealth.

Hiccup observed them through the spyglass, and waited until the estimated number of crewmembers for each ship was on deck. Then he sent in the eager first wave to attack. The first thing the dragons would do is fire at the crew to clear up some space for them to land and then the rider would hop off and begin attacking while the dragon would cover them. Of course, at the sight of Vikings riding the fearsome beasts, some of the crewmembers were fortunate enough to find that their attackers weren't interested in the slave ship and jumped overboard to swim for the cover of the slave ship.

"Alright, second wave, you're on!" Hiccup declared. The second wave moved in, and at the sight of more approaching dragons, more of Butterbutt's crew jumped overboard, and once they landed at their chosen ships, Hiccup and Toothless took flight with the remaining dragons following behind him.

As Toothless was approaching the ships, he and Hiccup could hear Helga singing Viking war songs in her opera voice. Helga sang opera very well, but the fact that she could sing almost too loud for human ears to handle, made it a shield as the unfortunate opponents around her were forced to drop their weapons in order to cover their ears. Hiccup didn't object to her using her voice in this manner, but there was a drawback, at that volume, it can throw off a dragon's aim, and being a bit of a dragon hybrid, it also messed up Hiccup's aim a bit. Not exactly something he wanted when he was equipped with a bow and arrows (like this day) as well as is flame sword, Inferno.

Before going to Astrid's aid, Hiccup and Toothless would land on each ship to fire a plasma blast and for Hiccup to conjure up fire to shoot at the crew from the Dragonstone powers inside of him. At the demonstration of Hiccup and Toothless' power, there were more men retreating to the slave ship.

"It's about time you got here!" Astrid snapped when Hiccup landed on her ship.

"I had to check up on the others, and I knew that you could handle yourself. Now go and raid the archives, I'll cover you." He replied. Astrid left with Stormfly following after her; after all the Deadly Nadder had sacks for Astrid to store the loot she collected.

Astrid ignored the maps, which took up a fair chunk of the archives, as Hiccup was actively making a map of the world, and they already had plenty of traders now. She also ignored any of the books and scrolls on the dragons already known, as they would be out-of-date when compared to the dragon books on Berk. So she looted the books on other subjects, and any records Butterbutt wrote up.

She did a good job of looting the ship before Hiccup came down to grab a few more books and tell her that the time to loot was up, and that Stoick finally caught Butterbutt.

"How did he do it?" Astrid asked him.

* * *

Valka hopped off of Cloudjumper's back right after Hiccup and Toothless left the lead ship. She stood net to Stoick as she covered him while he and Shadowrath went inside to find Butterbutt. Stoick caught sight of Butterbutt at the bow of the ship as he was approaching, but his look wasn't very long before he alerted his crew and went into hiding.

Stoick broke into the room he assumed to be his cabin, and had Shadowrath start destroying the place in an effort to find the captain while Stoick looked the room of anything that appeared to be of interest, such as exotic weapons, to odd trinkets made of metal.

Shadowrath finally looked over to Stoick to alert him that Butterbutt was not in the room, when his red-violet eyes went wine with narrow pupils, as he saw that Butterbutt was right about to run Stoick through with a sword. Shadowrath didn't waste any time to fire at Butterbutt, knocking the sword out of his hand, and Stoick punched his lights out.

"Thank you, Shadowrath." Stoick told him.

* * *

"That was how it was done." Hiccup told Astrid.

"Alright, well, I don't want to miss the execution." She replied. She hopped on Stormfly and they fled the ship.

They found Stoick circling Butterbutt's fleet as he held their captain by his butter-colored hair. Hiccup gave the signal to Stoick to execute, and Butterbutt was beheaded. Hiccup then looked to his riders and signaled them to blow up the ships they looted.

They were the six most perfect explosions they've seen since the making of the Dragonstones and Dagur's execution. Each one had it's own flare due to the different dragons that had blown them up. The Hooligans applauded themselves as they returned to their ship, and the dragons were growling to themselves in satisfaction.

Once they were back on their ship, Scauldy went back to his towline and the tribe looked over their loot. Fishlegs and Claudette were thrilled to see all of the books and records Astrid and Hiccup collected. Everyone, especially Gothi, was happy to see all of the medicinal herbs Eret collected with Ruffnut; with the amount they collected, they would be able to cure anything that hit them. People were both pleased, and a bit on edge, when they saw what came from the food ship; Fishlegs found delicious drinks like rum, beer, and mead plenty of fruits and vegetables, but they found some unusual meats, ranging from squid to exotic birds, but most of it looked tasty. Everyone was in awe to see what Snotlout and Spitelout collected; if they gave it all to trader Johann, he would pass out and wet his pants in amazement. Gobber's looting was also pretty impressive, with luxurious fabrics and unusual weapons his loot would serve Berk well.

Hiccup divided everything up among his people, giving most of the medicinal loot to Gothi, and Gobber got more of the craftsmen tools for his forge. Food would be shared with everyone; Snotlout Spitelout, Stoick, and Valka got a larger portion of the gold and jewels than anyone else; but everyone was pleased with their share.

As the food was being prepared for the little celebration they were having that night, most of the people returned to their cabins to tuck away their loot and get a bit of rest. Hiccup and Astrid took turns telling Anora and Midnightfire about the pirates after giving them a snack.

"Man, I wish I could've been a part of that. Why couldn't I have gone? I'm a capable Storm Fury." Midnightfire said.

"True, but your father would've gone insane if anything happened to you." Hiccup replied. He scratched at his scales through his top.

"Are you about to have one of your Dragon Nights?" Astrid asked him, seeing the gesture.

"No, the itch isn't strong enough. The weather and the fight stimulated the dragon in me and the itch is the reaction from it." He replied.

"Look, if you need to go flying, then go flying." Astrid stated.

"I've just turned Snotlout back into a human, and I don't like causing multiple transformations in one day. I know I can, but I don't want to, otherwise it starts taking a toll on my stamina. Besides, Fishlegs has dibs on my next Dragon Night, if he sees me flying around on my own, he might think I went back on my word."

With that, the subject was dropped; and it wasn't long after that the feast was ready. It was both exotic and delicious; and on another note, they could expect to arrive at Claudette's kingdom the next day.

* * *

**A pirate captain named: ****_Butterbutt the Merciless!_**** What the hell am I going to come up with next? That was funny, wasn't it?**


	6. Chapter 6: Happy Feast and Misfortune

**Chapter Six: Happy Feast and Misfortune **

**New season of Doctor Who airs today, 8/23/14. I thought I'd make a little scene as a tribute to Matt Smith now that there's a new Doctor.**

"Sire, we have a ship approaching!" The page announced. King Hubert looked up from the book he was reading, and headed straight for the docks with his Queen and son in tow. The three of them weren't in their grandest uniforms, but if the approaching ship was the one that they were expecting, then there wasn't much of a need for them to dress up that much.

Now that they were at the docks with the Royal Guard, and with a spyglass in hand, King Hubert confirmed that this was the ship they were so looking forward to seeing.

* * *

This time around, the people didn't bother dressing up for their arrival at Claudette's kingdom; the word that they didn't have to spread rather quickly. The only people who really dressed up were Claudette, Fishlegs, and Mr. Hofferson (simply because he liked them).

It wasn't that long into the day when the ship finally docked. Claudette and Fishlegs were the first to get off the ship with their dragons and be greeted by the King and Queen… and then they were swarmed by Whoshadow's hatchlings. The small Skrills made sure that they weren't accidentally clawing Claudette's family as they fluttered around them. They were also making sure that Claude, perched on Queen Celeste's shoulder, couldn't snap at them.

"So, these must be the troublesome hatchlings you told us about." King Hubert stated. Whoshadow made a growl that brought the hatchlings back to her feet.

"Yep, Vastra, Thorn, and Enya." Claudette replied, pointing to each of the hatchlings.

"Ah, Chief Hiccup, it's good to see you again too!" King Hubert declared. Hiccup bowed his head to the King and introduced the royal family to Toothless, Sapphire, and Midnightfire.

"They're beautiful." Queen Celeste declared while taking a closer look at Sapphire.

"Yes, they are, and like Whoshadow, they are among the most dangerous of dragons. Luckily, they won't attack as long as they don't feel threatened. Also, like the Skrill, they fly at incredibly fast speeds." Hiccup replied. Claudette's family looked into his eyes and noticed that she wasn't kidding when she told them that Hiccup had dragon eyes. Hiccup noticed their curiosity, and told them: "It's a long and intense story, I'll have to tell you it at your castle."

As Hiccup spoke, his people still kept coming off of the ship, and he felt Anora wrap her arms around his good leg.

"Oh, and your majesties, this is my daughter, Anora… This is her first time being on a faraway trip from home, so she's probably going to be a little shy at first." Hiccup stated. He bent down and picked up the girl, and she wrapped her arms behind his neck and her legs around his waist.

"I'm afraid that her age and her eyes are raising some questions in my head." Queen Celeste stated. Her confusion was understandable, Anora was born on the day they returned to Berk from Fishlegs's wedding at this very kingdom, but Anora hatched out of a egg, and said egg was lain quite a while before it hatched, so for the wedding Astrid didn't look pregnant. Anora's eyes also confused the Queen, if she inherited her eyes from her father, then Hiccup would've had them at the time of the wedding, but his eyes back then were regular human eyes.

"It's another long story, and not one I can tell without laughing." Hiccup replied.

"Then we should start heading back to the palace. We have much to tell you too." King Hubert declared.

"You mean something else has been going on aside from Salomon's coronation?" Claudette asked him.

"Yes, and I'm afraid that because of it, we may have to postpone the coronation for a while. I'll get into more detail over lunch." He replied.

As they ventured into the city, Whoshadow, Toothless, and Cloudjumper had to hold back Whoshadow's hatchlings, as they wanted to go straight for destruction. There were so many new things to see at the kingdom, but only the hatchlings couldn't wait to get their claws on some trouble, and their trilling and chattering (begging to be released from their hold) made for a long walk.

"Hold on… What happened to the smithy?" Gobber asked. No matter what condition a smithy was in, Gobber could recognize it. After the battling dragons, it was just easy to tell, and in this case, it was bad but far from the worst he'd seen.

"That's part of the reason why we may have to postpone my coronation... and that's not the worst of it." Salomon replied.

"No dragon did that, otherwise there'd be more scorch marks, and no human would do that… what is going on here?" Gobber asked.

"Please hold your questions until after lunch. We'll explain our situation then." Queen Celeste replied. Unfortunately, Gobber's question was the only thing on their minds as they finally made it to the palace.

* * *

The Vikings were awed at the display awaiting them when they entered the dining hall. As of right now, the only dragons allowed inside were the Skrills, Night Furies, Meatlug, and Claude. The rest were sent off to hunt for their fish. The Night Furies stayed at Hiccup's insistence, as Toothless may need to hear the conversations taking place, but right now, he was just waiting for fish to come to him. As it turned out, the chefs decided to have some fun, and fry about half of the fish they were given.

"So, Chief Hiccup, would you mind telling us about your, and your daughter's, eyes?" Queen Celeste asked. Hiccup paused, knowing that coming up with the stories, while excluding the part where they were turned into dragons, would prove some difficulty. Still he managed, and he got a punch in the arm for Anora's egg, and for putting all the blame on Loki.

As his stories came to a close, Whoshadow took an interest in Claudette's desert bowl. Hiccup paused as she asked the Skrill: "Would you like to try some custard?" Whoshadow stuck out her tongue and was given a dollop of the desert. When Whoshadow swallowed it, she made a hilarious face of satisfaction. Her eyes closed, she purred, her lips were sort of puckered, and she was shaking with happiness.

"Bring in some more custard for the dragons!" King Hubert called out.

A few minutes later, the chefs came out with a cauldron of custard. The dragons took turns taking licks out of it, but then Whoshadow got clever, took one of the fried fish in her mouth, and _dipped_ it into the custard before eating it! After she swallowed the weird treat, she roared with delight and satisfaction, and the other dragons began to copy her, getting even funnier reactions. Toothless did some sort of happy dance, Sapphire was jumping for joy, Midnightfire was doing back flips, and so on.

"I've never seen a dragon act like that over food." Hiccup stated, trying to keep from laughing. Toothless heard him, and dipped another fried fish into the custard and brought it over to Hiccup's plate, telling him: "You gotta try it! This stuff is amazing!"

Hesitantly, Hiccup bit into the fish, chewed, swallowed, and started laughing to himself.

"This stuff goes down _much_ better than Astrid's yaknog! It's not that bad." He told the company. Curious, Anora asked to try a bite and gave a similar reaction.

"Alright, enough with the custard-covered fish! Dad you said that there's been trouble lately." Claudette said.

"Yes… we've been having something attack us during the nights. Whatever it is, it destroyed the smithy, and… it killed Sir Bartholomew." King Hubert told them. Claudette was in shock; she knew how brave and how strong Bartholomew was. Everyone was quiet, even the dragons stopped enjoying the custard as the king continued: "We don't know what it is, but what we do know is that I would like to enlist your help in tracking the beast down and eliminating it. So will you help us end this reign of terror?"

"We'll see what we can do, but first we need to see what we're up against." Hiccup replied.

"We kept Sir Bartholomew's remains on ice in the dungeons." Hubert replied. Hiccup got up and had Fishlegs, Claudette, and their dragons follow the King to the dungeons. There, the guards dug up the remains from the pile of snow, showing them the mangled body. The dragons each sniffed the corpse as Hiccup examined the wounds, while Claudette was weeping on Fishlegs's shoulder.

"I've never seen marks like these come from dragons or weapons." Hiccup told them.

"Hiccup, I smell animal hair and musk." Meatlug told him. Hiccup then relayed: "Meatlug says that this is the work of an animal… Mammal to be more specific… Do you have any top predatory mammals that might attack a human and inflict these wounds?"

"Not really, we get the occasional pack of wolves, but they don't come that close to the civilized areas. Not as close as the place where Sir Bartholomew was killed." Hubert replied.

"Then why is this man dead?" Fishlegs asked.

"The only beasts that I can come up with now are normally dismissed as legends. Legends that say that at night, man can become beast; and legends that say that the night awakens the most terrible of monsters. Usually they're just stories that we tell our children to scare them into staying out of the forest. Is it possible that they are true?" King Hubert asked.

"Do you have any books on them? Maybe these beasts are more than legends." Hiccup replied, thinking about how the night sometimes awakens his inner dragon.

* * *

**Bit of a cliffhanger, but this is a suspense story. Anyways, I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and my little Matt Smith tribute. I know some of you are Whovians. At any rate, after Hiccup and the gang are done with the books, I hope to put more focus on Anora and Midnightfire. **


	7. Chapter 7: Dragons, Cats, and Nights

**Chapter Seven: Dragons, Cats, and Nights**

**Much love for the fish custard in the last chapter; and I have to admit as a Doctor Who fan myself, it was fun to write.**

**Also, if you still can't get enough of the Dragonstone stories, Rouge Deity Master is writing his own story. There are some similarities, but it is clear that he plans on making it a story of his own, and I recommend that you check it out.**

Astrid settled into the quarters that Queen Celeste assigned her, Hiccup, and Anora. Their dragons would join them eventually, but Stormfly was hunting and exploring still, Toothless was with Hiccup, and Sapphire was waiting for them to return before entering the room.

It didn't keep Midnightfire from entering the room alongside Anora. They began to wrestle with each other as Astrid sat down on the bed to watch them, but she didn't notice what was on the bed. She sat down and heard a shriek out of something small, but with quite the set of lungs. Everyone paused for a moment, as they turned around to see where and what the noise came from. It was a small creature covered in long black fur, with erect ears, long tail, claws, pointed teeth, and it had beautiful green eyes.

"Momma, what is that?" Anora asked.

"I'm not too sure myself, I've never seen one of these creatures before." Astrid replied. Anora got up from the floor and took a closer look at the creature.

"It reminds me of Uncle Toothless!" Anora declared.

"My father does _not_ look like that fuzzy thing!" Midnightfire snapped. The two of them broke out in another fight and Astrid reached out to touch the critter on the bed. It seemed to enjoy being scratched right at the base of the tail. Astrid bore down on it more, and the critter made a sound like: 'MEROW'.

_It certainly is quite the change from petting a dragon._ Astrid thought as the creature started purring.

"OAF!" Anora sounded, and Astrid noticed that Midnightfire had pinned the girl to the ground and was holding her down by lying on top of the girl. Astrid didn't mind them playing rough like that as she had often seen Hiccup play like that with Toothless.

"I could easily pin you if I was a Stormcutter!" Anora snapped.

"Your father has told you to stay human. He might make an exception once the sun goes down though." Astrid stated.

"No fair." Anora said when Midnightfire let her up.

"We could explore this place with my Momma." Midnightfire suggested.

"Can we do that, Momma? It will be more fun than wrestling." Anora asked.

"Can you wait a few minutes? I want to meet Hiccup here before we do anything else, and he should be here pretty soon." Astrid replied.

"Will you tell us one of your stories, Aunt Astrid? Anora's not much of a good sport when wrestling as a human." Midnightfire said. Astrid told them a great number of stories before, and so had Hiccup; but this time, the story was about how she and Snotlout were forced to trade dragons and learn how to work together. The story took about a half hour to tell, counting the time it took to answer Anora's questions, before they heard the knock on the door followed by the voices of Sapphire and Toothless. Astrid didn't bother getting up or answering the knock, she just allowed Hiccup to step inside. To her surprise, Claudette and Fishlegs followed in after him and the Night Furies.

"So, care to tell me what's been going on? You were gone longer than I expected… and Anora, if you must hug your father's leg, hug the other one or you might accidentally pull his prosthetic off." Astrid said.

"It appears that my kingdom is being terrorized by monsters we've dismissed as legends." Claudette replied as Anora switched legs and Midnightfire perched on her father's back.

"What sort of monsters are we talking about?" Astrid asked.

"The legends say that a person with even the purest heart, can become a beast after sunset." Fishlegs replied. At hearing this, Astrid cast a worried look to Hiccup, he was scratching furiously at his scales through his clothes at the moment.

"I know, Astrid, it's not going to look good for me if someone in this Kingdom sees me going through one of my changes; and it certainly doesn't help that tonight is going to be one of my Dragon Nights." Hiccup told her.

"Normally, Astrid, the creatures of these legends assume a more lupine form… However there are few that speak of the fact that these creatures could be anything from some form of top predator, to something as low as a worm. Still, that does mean that the possibility of someone assuming a draconic form isn't out of the question; but according to legend, these monsters lose their humanity, and we all know that Hiccup doesn't lose his humanity and becomes a mindless monster like these creatures at night." Claudette spoke.

"Also, I still have dibs on tonight's Dragon Night." Fishlegs stated with a hint of worry in his voice.

"If you want to back out of it, Fishlegs, I will understand." Hiccup replied.

"No, I don't want to back out. I've been waiting for this night, and I don't want to pass it up… even if my inner dragon is something like a Terrible Terror, or a pink and yellow Deadly Nadder." He said with courage and affirmation.

"Fishlegs, have a little faith in yourself, you are going to be more than a Terrible Terror, and you are not nearly vain enough to be a Deadly Nadder. Now, if you're sure of this, then we'll tell King Hubert that we'll go out tonight and scout the forest to see if we can prevent the creature from attacking again tonight." Hiccup said.

"I'll be there." Fishlegs told him.

"I'm going too. I'm not leaving my husband out there when there could be a rampaging monster out there." Claudette put in.

"Alright, but in that case, don't forget your bow and your Skrills." Hiccup replied. He looked over the bed, and noticed the fuzzy creature that Astrid was petting. Toothless got curious and sniffed it, but the creature arched its back, swiped, and hissed at him.

"Wow, what is that?" Hiccup asked noticing that Toothless backed away from it.

"You've never seen a cat before?" Claudette asked. She picked the critter up and held it in front of Hiccup.

"It looks a little like Toothless." Fishlegs stated, earning a snarl from the Night Fury.

* * *

Anora and Midnightfire were given just enough time to explore the palace before dinner, and by then, the irritation of Hiccup's scales was almost too unbearable to keep concealed. The minute dinner was over he announced that he, Fishlegs, Claudette, and their dragons would go out to scout the forest. The King, Queen, and Prince were the only ones who didn't have the faintest idea as to what was really going on.

By the time they reached the forest, the sun had as little as a few minutes before it fully set. Hiccup's vision was beginning to blur in and out of focus. Claudette took his hand and gave it to Fishlegs; at his touch Hiccup discharged the power into him.

_That was a close call for me._ Hiccup thought as he shielded his eyes from the bright light that had been created.

"Hiccup, what did you turn my husband into?" Claudette asked, pointing to the sky. He looked up…

"Wow, I didn't quite expect that." He stated. He looked to the sky with a hand shielding his eyes. It was needed because…

Fishlegs was a glowing Flightmare.

"What is that dragon?" Claudette demanded.

"He's a Flightmare. They are a Strike class dragon, like Skrills and Night Furies, and they can spray you with a paralyzing mist. The paralysis doesn't last very long, but it is long enough for to make an attack." Hiccup replied. A moment later, Fishlegs landed before them, earning a smile from Hiccup.

"I honestly thought that I was a Gronkle or a Hotburple." He admitted.

"You were meant to fly faster than those dragons." Hiccup replied. Meatlug grunted at him before checking Fishlegs out.

"It also beats being a pink and yellow Deadly Nadder." Claudette stated. Hiccup and the dragons nodded.

"I agree, but I'm worried about the light. We're supposed to be looking for a monster, and with this glow, the monster is more likely to find us before we find it." Hiccup replied.

"Then let it come. I could paralyze it." Fishlegs told him. Hiccup translated for Claudette and they set out to find a monster. For once, Whoshadow's hatchlings were behaving themselves. They barely chattered and they were staying close to their mother.

"You three are behaving well tonight. Thank you." Whoshadow told them.

They continued through the forest for a couple hours, looking for anything out of the ordinary, but all they got was more and more forest.

"Maybe we should start heading back to the palace." Claudette suggested. She spoke too soon. A bush began to rustle from behind them, and out stepped a monster! It was hideous and magnificent at the same time. It was a perfect blend of human and wolf coming together into one horrifying creature. The repulsive thing approached them snarling, with drool hanging from its jowls.

"Fishlegs, now's your moment!" Hiccup exclaimed. Without a moment to lose, Fishlegs paralyzed the beast.

"We shouldn't kill it though, there is a human within that beast." Claudette spoke.

After some careful planning, and another blast of mist, they took the werewolf to a storeroom in a tower of the palace and locked the creature in there for the night. Leaving them free of responsibilities for the remainder of the night.

* * *

"It turns out that Fishlegs's inner dragon is a Flightmare." Hiccup told his friends. They looked over to Fishlegs in awe.

"Oh, c'mon, how can he be a _Flightmare_?" Snotlout asked in fuming jealousy.

"For one thing, Snotlout, the type of dragon you become is the one that suits your personality the most. Just because you're a Deadly Nadder now, doesn't mean that you'll always be one. If you change, so will the dragon." Hiccup replied.

"We also caught a werewolf last night… and we should probably check on it right now." Claudette put in. The gang saddled up their dragons and flew to the tower they stored the Werewolf in. They opened the door, and found a man inside it.

"Sir _Dillard,_ is that you?" Claudette asked. The man was nude and in tears, but he nodded. Claudette explained to them that during the day, Sir Dillard was a peaceful man who wouldn't hurt anyone, not even with words.

"Sir Dillard, I am Chief Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III of Berk. I would like to know how you got your…_ condition_."

Sir Dillard was shivering in the corner of the storeroom, and could barely speak, his only answer was this: "The Vessel of Fear."

* * *

**Here's where we end. Ok, so how did I come up with a Flightmare for Fishlegs? I wanted something that would fit these characters, but wasn't obvious (Stormcutter Astrid for example) so I ignored the Boulder class dragons. The Flightmare is smart, as it is a Strike class dragon, and you have to admit that it has a sort of 'fishy' appearance.**

**Also, Best OC Maker, you sure called the werewolf.**


	8. Chapter 8: Back into the Forest

**Chapter Eight: Back Into the Forest **

At Sir Dillard's response, Claudette's eyes went wide and she pulled Whoshadow's wing around her like a blanket.

"No, please tell me that the legend isn't true about the Vessel of Fear." She said. Whoshadow was troubled, as she had never seen her rider this scared before.

"I'm afraid it is, Milady, and I am also afraid to admit it, but I vaguely remember biting someone's arm before the glowing dragon attacked me, and you captured me. I don't know who though, but someone needs to find them before they change _tonight_." Sir Dillard replied.

"For those of us who don't know about the Vessel of fear, would you mind explaining it to us?" Hiccup asked.

"It actually should be _Vessels_ of Fear, as there are two creatures who take a part of it. One is a tall, slender, person, but I doubt that it is human and he is called Cuttleclaw. The other is a gigantic, demonic, beast with four eyes, each eye is a different color that represents the fears of humanity. Strange as it may sound, it is not the beast you need to fear, but Cuttleclaw. You see the Vessel of Fear lives in a secret cave, which only Cuttleclaw can leave. When he leaves, he searches for the souls of great heroes, and those who get in his way are killed, but for those who manage to find the cave and look into the demon's eyes, he rewards them with a curse… Like he did to me." Sir Dillard replied.

"Whoa, that story would be so cool if it wasn't true." Tuffnut stated.

"I'll second that." Ruffnut added.

"Hold on, why is he collecting these souls?" Hiccup asked.

"I mentioned that Cuttleclaw is the only one who can leave. He collects the souls in hopes of releasing the beast, and then he plans to purge the world with the monsters. The legend says that he needs to collect seven within a certain amount of time, but how much time I do not know."

"Sir Dillard, do you know of a way to help you get rid of the curse?" Claudette asked.

"Well, one way would be to kill me, I would prefer not to do that. The other would be to destroy the staff that Cuttleclaw cursed me with. Now, Princess, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to sent down to the dungeons." Sir Dillard replied as he took some spare canvas and some rope to make clothes.

"As you wish, just one more thing, did you kill Sir Bartholomew?" She asked.

"No, I was only cursed the night after he was killed. I'm afraid that I am not the only creature of the night lurking in that forest." Sir Dillard replied.

* * *

With Sir Dillard locked up in the dungeons now, some Vikings and the Royal Guards went out in search for anyone who had been attacked that night, including the women and children, but they found no one over the course of the day. So Hiccup decided that it would be best if they went out to scout the forest again that night during lunch.

"I wish to go with you." Prince Salomon declared.

"Do you now?" Claudette asked him in a teasing tone.

"I am to become King shortly. It is time that I stepped up to defend it as Chief Hiccup has defended his village. So yes, I wish to go into the forest with you tonight." Prince Salomon replied.

"Alright, I can assign you to Sapphire to watch your back." Hiccup replied. From behind him, he heard the Night Fury snarling.

"She seems a bit feisty for me, perhaps a calmer dragon, like the beast Sir Fishlegs rides, or perhaps the elegant creature Dame Astrid rides."

_Well I can always turn my cousin into a Deadly Nadder for you but I don't think that his color would suit you._ Hiccup thought, but he told Salomon: "I'm sure that Astrid or Fishlegs would be willing to lend one of their dragons and ride Sapphire for the night."

"Son, why don't you take one of the horses?" Queen Celeste asked.

"Dragons provide cover fire." Prince Salomon replied.

By the end of lunch, Astrid allowed the Prince to borrow Stormfly, but even she seemed to be feeling a little high-strung around him. It could be the fact that he just approached her for the first time and didn't know that she could trust him.

"I still can't believe that we didn't find the person that Sir Dillard attacked last night. We must've searched every house." Snotlout stated, as Salomon was busy trying to make friends with Stormfly.

"It was odd." Fishlegs replied.

"Perhaps Sir Dillard attacked a person who doesn't live in the kingdom." Salomon suggested. It wasn't the most outlandish idea they heard.

* * *

As the sun was beginning to set, Hiccup assigned the dragon riders their positions and began their scouting mission. At this hour they were hoping to catch the werewolf before nightfall; but in knowing the lurking danger, Hiccup's scales began to itch with intensity. As mentioned before, it took several factors to trigger one of Hiccup's Dragon Nights. This time it was the danger.

He still wandered deeper into the forest, until he came across a clearing, and the sun was still trying to set. Hiccup removed the components of his armor over his torso along with his prosthetic and hid them in the cavity of a tree before lying down on the cool grass and waited for the night to change him.

"If there were a perfect night to become a dragon, this would be it. Not only is there lurking danger, but the weather is great for flying." Toothless spoke as he settled down next to Hiccup, earning a neck rub from him.

The sun just set, Hiccup's pulse heightened, and the dark blue and silver scales began covering his skin. While he was going through his transformation, he directed his focus to see if he could control whether or not his left leg either ended in a stump or a foot. He preferred the stump, as it felt awkward for him to have a left foot.

He rolled over to allow his wings to grow and stretch as his transformation was just about done. When he did finish, he quickly shook off the dizzy spell and noticed that he could control whatever end his left leg could have, this time it ended in a stump. He then looked around the clearing, and to his surprise, there was an observer... Prince Salomon. He turned to Stormfly but Hiccup quickly pounced on him, pinning him to the ground. He kept his face calm, and nonthreatening, but then the Prince let out a moan and then a scream.

From a short distance, Claudette heard the scream and ran over to the clearing to find Hiccup, as a dragon, holding down her brother, who was convulsing under Hiccup's foot. Hiccup looked over to Claudette with confusion on his face. He obviously wasn't putting enough pressure to cause Salomon any pain. Then, looking down at the Prince, he noticed that his eyes had turned to a fierce yellow, and his hair was growing thicker.

"HE'S A WEREWOLF!" He exclaimed, rearing up on his one rear leg and extending his wings.

Claudette and the dragons backed off, but never took their eyes off of Salomon. Not even when Claudette and Hiccup decided to quickly set up a net trap for the Prince. If they would catch him in the trap, they would save the people from being attacked by him, and he will be safe from the people who would attack him.

When Salomon's change was over, Whoshadow delivered a mighty blow to the werewolf's torso with her tail, and he landed square on the net trap, where Toothless had to draw a piece of rope to suspend the werewolf, this trap wasn't like the ones on Berk. So, Salomon was manually suspended, and Claudette tied the rope around a tree.

"Ok, so my brother is a werewolf, and as of right now my Chief is a dragon, what else could go haywire tonight?" Claudette asked. Hiccup shrugged to her. She sat down against a tree looked up to her werewolf brother, who was struggling to get out of the trap, and then she bowed her head and started crying. Hiccup limped over to her and used a claw to tip her chin up so she could meet his eyes, and his eyes told her: 'You can always speak your mind to me'.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be acting up like this. It's just that he's going to be King soon, and to see my own brother being treated like some sort of game animal is distressing. I should get back to hunting, but I don't want him to be left alone." She told him. Hiccup pointed to himself, and then to the ground.

"You will stay with him?" Claudette asked. Hiccup nodded to her and wrote in the dirt: _'I'll be able to talk to him once he's human again. He'll have questions for me too.'_

"Thank you, Chief, this means a lot to me." She replied. With that, she got back on Whoshadow and took off, the hatchlings following after them. Toothless remained with Hiccup to keep him company.

* * *

**Special thanks to Rogue Deity Master… You know what for. **


	9. Chapter 9: O Brother, Why?

**Chapter Nine: O Brother, Why?**

After a night of staying close to a werewolf Price, wrestling Toothless, and napping, Hiccup awoke to the warm sun sharing its warmth on his scales. He got to his feet, flew over to the tree with his clothes hidden in a cavity. Upon landing in front of the tree, he assumed his human form and got dressed.

During this time, Prince Salomon was slowly returning to human form, but it wasn't until the Prince was fully was he able to comprehend his predicament.

"Oh God, what has happened to me?" He wailed. He heard the sound of a person running to him, but the steps were odd. One of the legs had to be false, and there were very few people he knew with false legs.

"Care to come down from there?" Hiccup asked.

"Yes, I'd like that very much." Salomon replied. Hiccup worked the knot, while Toothless held the rope to keep Salomon from crashing to the ground.

That ordeal was over with quickly, Hiccup simply cut the rope at the knot, and Toothless let Salomon down to the ground slowly. Hiccup tried helping him out of the net, but the Prince refused his aid.

"What's wrong with taking my hand?" Hiccup asked.

"I don't want the aid of monsters! I saw what happened to you last night, you became a dragon just like I became a wolf. If that wasn't surprising enough, then this did: as I watched you change, you weren't even fighting it. You just allowed the beast take you over! I may be a beast myself, but at least _I_ fight against it! I _refuse_ to become a monster, where you just give in!" Salomon snapped, his words earning a snarl from Toothless.

"Very well, you don't need to accept my help, but let me tell you something: I am not a monster, I am a dragon. I'm not even a weredragon. You see, unlike you, I can assume my dragon form at will, but some nights, under the right conditions, the night changes me. With that being said, I should also tell you that when the night changes me, I'm still myself inside, and from what your father told me, werewolves lose themselves after they turn. That must be rather scary for you, and I can understand why you didn't go to anyone to admit that you're a werewolf, it scared me the first time I turned dragon against my will." Hiccup stated. Prince Salomon rolled up his torn trousers to reveal the bandage over a nasty wound, which meant that they found the person Sir Dillard bit.

"This isn't exactly something we tell our parents. How many of your people know that at times you_ have _to be a dragon?"

"All of them." Hiccup replied casually.

"Excuse me, _all of them_?"

"They were bound to find out eventually, and admitting it to the people took away the surprise; it has also helped me out, by telling them that I have these Dragon Nights, I can have people filling in for me while I catch up on my rest. Salomon, my people have known of this condition ever since we executed Dagur the Deranged, and that was three years ago; and do they treat me as if I am some sort of animal? I'll answer that for you: no they do not, they just go about their day and I help them in any way I can."

"So you're going to help me get through this?" Salomon asked.

"Whether you like it or not." Hiccup replied.

* * *

Hiccup and Salomon entered the throne room. Aside from the King and Queen, only Claudette and Stoick were in there, but even then, Astrid and Anora were making their way down to meet with Hiccup.

"So, do you have anything to report?" King Hubert asked. Hiccup looked over to Prince Salomon and gestured for him to speak, or rather make his confession. The Prince stepped forward and locked eyes with his parents, his mind swarming with questions of how they would react and treat him when the truth came out. Claudette already knew, and that was embarrassing enough, so he took a deep breath.

"Yes, there is something I wish to report." He stated. Now, Astrid and Anora had entered the room. After a pause, he quickly pointed to Hiccup and declared: "It's Chief Hiccup, I've discovered that he is a weredragon! Last night I saw as black scales took over his flesh, and became a beast, he didn't even fight against the change. It was as if he enjoyed it!"

Hiccup's eyes went wide and the pupils in them became slits. That wasn't what was supposed to happen.

"SIEZE HIM!" King Hubert boomed.

Within a moment, the Royal Guard had surrounded him and had him in shackles. Then, King Hubert stood up, stepped forward, and told Hiccup: "I asked you for your help, and now you're one of them? I'm sorry, but now my son tells me that you're one of those monsters, and that makes you a threat to the Kingdom. Guards, lock him up in the dungeons!"

Hiccup cast a glare over to Salomon and noticed Claudette's shocked face and listened as Stoick began to protest against this course of action.

"I'm sorry, Stoick, but I cannot endanger my people by having Chief Hiccup walk among them."

"He is not a weredragon." Stoick told the King.

"I've raised my son to be pure and honest. If Hiccup is not a weredragon, then that means that Prince Salomon is lying, and that is impossible. Now tell me, Stoick, and Claudette, can Chief Hiccup be turned into a dragon by the forces of the night?" He replied.

"Well… yes but-"

"Then that's all I need to hear. Hiccup will remain in our dungeons, and I'll hear nothing more about it. You are all dismissed." King Hubert declared.

Claudette turned to scowl at her brother in betrayal, but he had already left the room. However, Claudette had a strong feeling as to where he might be... and strapped to her body were her sword, bow, and arrows. She spotted Astrid at the balcony of the room, trying to console her daughter, who had just witnessed her father being arrested. She ran up to them and spoke: "I'll make my brother pay for this."

* * *

Salomon was in his room, getting ready to run off. He was packing saddlebags when he heard the door being kicked open with a loud 'BANG'. He jumped at the sound, and turned to face Claudette. Her green eyes were burning into his soul through her wild mane of black hair.

"It wasn't locked." He told her coolly, gesturing to the door.

"Do I look like I care?" She asked. She stepped into the room and notched an arrow on her bow. Salomon's eyes widened in terror, he held up his hands to show that he was unarmed, and told Claudette: "I-I'm y-y-your _brother_."

Claudette released the arrow and it caught the short cape he was wearing, pinning it to the wall.

"My loyalties are to the people of Berk _and_ my Chief, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. I am a _VIKING!_" Claudette shouted, drawing her sword. Salomon quickly unclasped his cape and dodged his sister's swing, picking up a fire poker as he did.

"How could you do that to him? He came here to help the kingdom!" Claudette snapped.

"He's a monster!" Salomon retorted. He ducked to dodge another swing.

"Hiccup is a noble, gentle, man! _YOU_ on the other hand are a _traitorous BEAST!_ YOU'RE A GREATER MONSTER THAN HE'S EVER BEEN!" Claudette roared. She pull vaulted over her sword, and kicked her brother's head with both feet, knocking him to the ground. She kept him pinned to the ground, raised her sword, and brought it down on her brother's left arm, hacking it off at the elbow. He let out a scream of agony, and Claudette got off of him and said: "Go get that treated, but if you tell anyone that I was the one who took it off, I will take your head. You will tell them that it was an assassin and you didn't get a look at _his_ face. That shouldn't be so hard as you already lied to our parents." She kicked him in the ribs and stormed out of the room.

* * *

Claudette took Whoshadow and flew to the seaside cliffs where she hung her head and began to cry. Whoshadow wrapped a wing around her, while the hatchlings cuddled with her.

"Oh gods, please, _please_ forgive me." She said, looking to the sky.

* * *

**Whoo boy, if that wasn't dramatic, I don't know what is.**


	10. Chapter 10: What She'll do Unto You

**Chapter Ten: What She'll do Unto You. **

The word that Salomon lost a hand to an assassin reached the whole kingdom within a half hour after he reached the infirmary. He wouldn't dare rat out his sister after what she did to him; for fear that she really would keep her word and take his head. He looked down at his stump hardly believing his own sister did that to him. So, it made the telling of this new lie all the more easier for him.

The Prince thought about his curse, surly he couldn't hide it from everyone for very long; but recalling what his parents did to Hiccup when he called him a Weredragon, he wouldn't admit it. He would flee his kingdom, the Vikings would eventually find the Vessel of Fear, and end his, and Sir Dillard's, curse soon enough. No one would ever know that he was a werewolf.

* * *

Astrid, Anora, Fishlegs, and Ruffnut found Claudette on the cliff, still weeping.

"Hey, we heard what happened to your brother's hand. Are you alright?" Fishlegs asked her.

"No… It's because _I'm_ the one who cut off his hand. You should've seen what he did to Hiccup. Astrid was there when that happened."

"Yeah, Salomon accused Hiccup of being a weredragon and he got arrested." Astrid replied.

"What?" Ruffnut said.

"We're not kidding, Ruff. Hiccup is sitting in that dungeon as we speak." Claudette replied.

"So do we get to bust him out?" Ruffnut asked with eagerness.

"No, as long as tonight isn't one of Hiccup's Dragon Nights, which chances are that it is not, they will find out that my brother was lying. Our objective should be to capture Salomon once he leaves the infirmary and show the kingdom what he is. After that, Salomon would be locked up, like Sir Dillard, and we can go on and hunt for the Vessel of Fear's lair."

"Why would we have to capture him?" Ruffnut asked.

"When I cut off his hand, I found him packing his saddlebags. He wants to escape this kingdom to make sure nobody finds out that he is cursed."

"So let me guess, you're going to go back to his room, chase or escort him outside where Whoshadow can catch him, drop him in the center of town just as the sun is setting." Astrid stated.

"That is the plan exactly; but if Salomon gets past me, he will head straight for the forest. So I need you all and the remaining dragon riders to make sure that he doesn't escape." Claudette replied.

* * *

Salomon knew nothing of his sister's plans for him. The moment he was discharged, he eagerly departed with his remaining hand grasping his bandaged stump, and headed straight for his room to collect his prepared saddlebags.

He was lucky to have beaten Claudette there. He may not've known that she was collaborating with friends to help her to bring him to justice, but he knew that she would be coming for him once she found out about his discharge. Now with the saddlebags in hand, it was time to make a break for it. He considered on stealing one of the dragons, but the risk of another rider catching him in the air scared him away from that idea. The Vikings were already angry with him for getting their Chief arrested; he didn't want to up the ante on their anger by stealing one of the beloved beasts. So, he made a run for the stables, where he would ride off on horseback.

He made it to the stables, and prepared his horse to be ridden.

* * *

"DAMN IT!" Claudette swore. She just made it to her brother's room, thirty minutes after her discharge time, but there was still hope. She stepped out onto the balcony and signaled to Astrid to get the other riders into position.

As the riders were working on surrounding the kingdom, Claudette called for Whoshadow and hatchlings and flew towards the stables. Where to her frustration, she caught her brother's horse heading towards the forest. Luckily for her though, the dragons were beginning to descend upon him, starting with Snotlout and Hookfang.

* * *

The roaring of a dragon is unmistakable, but Prince Salomon continued to urge his horse to keep galloping into the forest. The sun had at least fifteen to twenty minutes before he would be in deep shit.

His efforts in trying to outrun a group of perturbed Vikings on the backs of dragons proved to be futile though. Hookfang had passed him and landed in their path. The massive beast ignited itself, thus spooking the horse, and it threw Salomon off of its back. The battered Prince landed on the ground with a harsh thump, and was promptly surrounded by dragons.

"Please, stay away from me! The sun will be setting soon." He pleaded with the Vikings.

"Shut your hole, you pompous git! We already know what we're getting into." Gobber snapped. The blacksmith rarely got angry, but in this case he wasn't in the mood for putting his usual damper on his temper.

"What?" Salomon asked.

"I told them, Salomon, all of these Vikings know what you did to their Chief and what kind of monster you are! Now, Whoshadow, fetch him for me please." Claudette declared. Whoshadow sprang into action and took the Prince in her talons.

* * *

"The sun will be setting soon… and based off of what I heard, our prisoners get pretty interesting at night." A guard stated.

"Yes, rumor had it that the foreigner is a weredragon, and the knight is a werewolf. Would you mind if I stuck around to witness their metamorphosis's?" A palace butler replied.

"Not at all, I would be grateful for your company." The guard stated, taking a glance into Hiccup's cell. He looked back to the butler and added: "This one has been unusually quiet. He never said a word to me, other than 'thank you' when I brought him lunch. Sir Dillard, over in the cell across his, has tried engaging him in conversation, but didn't get much. Oh well, I'm sure that he'll have a lot more to say when the dragon in him takes over his human self."

The butler looked into Hiccup's cell. He was looking out the small window at the sunset. When Hiccup glanced at the butler, he was startled to see Hiccup's eyes for the first time. The rumors specifically said that he had dragon eyes, but he had a hard time imagining them on a person.

Hiccup returned his attention to the window at the setting sun. He wished to be free, but he knew that freedom was only a sunset away. He knew it in his scales.

* * *

Whoshadow was hovering over town, drawing the attention of the peasants. They formed a ring around the hovering dragon, and their gawking eyes struck horror into the heart of the Prince, as he now knew that his own sister was going to give him his worst nightmare.

"No! Please, Claudette, anything but this!" Salomon pleaded.

"I'm sorry, but this is your punishment." Claudette replied. Whoshadow and her hatchlings snarled at him. A moment later, the crazed Skrill dropped him into the ring of peasants. The dragon riders landed, knowing full well that they would have to defend them.

Salomon looked over to the western horizon, and found that the sun would set in a matter of a few minutes.

* * *

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Sir Dillard screamed, he twisted and convulsed within his cell, the guard and butler were gathered by the bars to watch him go through the agonizing metamorphosis.

"It's amazing how a person can endure this without passing out." The butler declared, hearing the moaning of the man becoming a werewolf.

Sir Dillard's change only took about three minutes. Both the guard and butler were frightened as well as amazed, oh the stories they could tell to frighten the children… but what about the weredragon? They didn't hear anything out of him, so they turned around and looked into Hiccup's cell; and there he was, just sitting in a corner, looking out his window at the night sky, twiddling his thumbs.

"What is this? Shouldn't you be changing too?" The guard asked him.

"Yes, provided if I was actually a weredragon." Hiccup replied.

"Get the King, Rob, either there has been a mistake, or the Prince lied." The guard ordered the butler.

"It was no mistake, the Prince lied to the King to protect his secret. Now are you going to let me out?" Hiccup told the guard.

"Oh, yeah… Now what secret is the Prince hiding?" The guard asked fiddling with his keys.

* * *

The peasants were shocked over what they had just witnessed. The being that was once their future King had been replaced with a horrifying monster. There were a few women who swooned, children were crying in fear, and men were prepared to run with their families in case the beast got past the dragons.

"Somebody get the King!" A woman in the background exclaimed. With that, their blacksmith made a run for the palace.

* * *

"See, Sire, the night didn't change him." Rob told King Hubert, gesturing to the free Hiccup.

"My son… he said that you were a weredragon." King Hubert stated, looking at Hiccup with disbelief.

"It's true that sometimes the night changes me, when given the right situation, but it's not an every night thing. In fact, I can actually control the changes. The reason why I didn't tell you this is because I want to keep it a secret. Not all of my allies need to know about this ability. Now, what we didn't get the chance to tell you is that Salomon is a werewolf." He replied. Hubert's eyes widened and stepped back from Hiccup.

"How dare you accuse my son of being a monster?" He snapped.

"I saw his change with my own eyes, and I have no reason to lie to you!" Hiccup retorted.

"No! I refuse to believe it!" Hubert exclaimed, putting his hands over his ears. It was a moment later when the blacksmith rushed into the room, panting, and told the King: "Your Majesty… we… have a… situation… in the… town… square. The Prince… is a… werewolf!"

"Are you going to call him a liar?" Hiccup asked Hubert calmly and seriously.

"Someone get my horse ready then!" King Hubert ordered.

"Ha, if you ask me nicely, I can fly you there." Hiccup told him.

"Will you?" He asked.

"I can arrange that." Hiccup replied. He ran out of the dungeon, through the main doors of the palace, and mimicked the Night Fury call. In a matter of a few seconds, Toothless landed before him. Hiccup looked over to the King and told him: "Hop on behind me."

With the King on Toothless' saddle, the Night Fury took off, and headed for the town square.

* * *

"Hiccup's free!" Astrid called out spotting the approaching Night Fury.

"Daddy!" Anora called out. Astrid then urged Stormfly to take to the sky and meet up with Toothless.

"It's good to see that they haven't been mistreating you." Astrid told Hiccup.

"Jail is not as bad as you may think, but I'd rather not go back. I'm glad to see that the two of you are alright." He replied. He looked down and spotted the werewolf, then he asked Astrid: "How're you all handling Salomon?"

"That ring is doing a good job in holding him in place, but we would rather we didn't have to stick around all night, waiting for him to change back." She replied.

"Let's see if either Vastra, Enya, or Thorn can use their lightning to knock him out. I have a strange feeling that rope from nets and bolas won't be strong enough to restrain him." Hiccup stated. They landed their dragons on either side of Whoshadow.

"It's nice to have you back in the game, Hiccup." Claudette stated.

"Thank you… Alright, Vastra, Enya, Thorn, go into the ring and see if you can knock him out."

"YEAH!" The Skrill hatchlings cheered. They fluttered around the werewolf, trying to dodge his claws and strike him at the same time. Whoshadow was getting worried that they might get their wings torn by said claws, and if that happened, she would become enraged and have to take care of Salomon herself.

Hiccup signaled to Snotlout, and made a gesture that he wanted him to cause a distraction for the werewolf, so the beast would see the hatchlings as a lesser threat, and therefore, divert most of his attention to the Monstrous Nightmare.

"Hookfang, flames!" Snotlout ordered. The massive beast set himself on fire and roared at the werewolf. Hiccup wasn't too sure what was going to happen, but he didn't fully anticipate that Hookfang would use his tail to knock down Salomon. With the werewolf on the ground, Enya sent a spark of lightning to Salomon's head, knocking him out.

With the werewolf unconscious, Hiccup gestured to the twins and Helga to tie up the beast with rope. They didn't have to worry about Salomon waking up anytime soon, and as they were tying up Salomon, the peasants let out their sighs of relief. After he was tied up, Stoick and Gobber took it upon themselves to carry the werewolf to the dungeon, and locked up the Prince.

"I am terribly sorry about my abhorrent behavior towards you, Chief Hiccup, I hope you can forgive me." Hubert stated.

"I will in time."

"I will also make sure that Salomon is properly punished for his lies, I know he was raised better than that. So, is there anything I can do for you to make amends?" King Hubert asked.

"All I want right now is to have a private dinner with Astrid and Anora and go to bed really. Oh, and would you mind rewarding the dragons by feeding them those fried fish and custard they liked so much?" Hiccup replied.

"Very well then. I'll have the meal sent to your room, and if the dragons are willing to stick around in the dining room, they'll be treated." Hubert told him. With that said and done, Hiccup took Anora in his arms and headed for the room.

"Daddy, can I go flying with Midnightfire and the Skrills tomorrow?" Anora asked.

"We'll see, but tomorrow, I have the feeling that the King and Queen would want Mommy and Daddy to go monster hunting." Hiccup replied.

Later on that night, the sounds of happy dragons enjoying fish and custard could be heard throughout the palace.

* * *

**I hope this chapter was worth the wait. So, out of curiosity, what is YOUR inner dragon?**


	11. Chapter 11: The Face of the Beast

**Chapter Eleven: The Face of the Beast**

As Hiccup predicted, the King's first order of business was to go out and search for the Vessel of Fear. During breakfast, he requested that Hiccup would take a small search party of Vikings to the forest in search of the Vessel's lair after lunch.

"Why would I risk my own people and myself for this mission?" Hiccup asked.

"I will reward you all handsomely if you could do this for me. Besides, your dragons can double up as warriors, where my men won't have that firepower, or such speed to make an escape if it is needed."

"How would you reward us?" Hiccup asked. For a favor this large, his expectations were high.

"I'll give you anything you request. Do you want larger and faster ships? I'll give you a small fleet. Are you short on metal? You can help yourselves. Do you fancy to satisfy your sweet tooth with chocolate? I'll clean the kingdom out of it for you. Just please, I beg you to do this for us!" Hubert replied.

"Very well, but you must look into everything you have on the Vessel of Fear while we are out. Who knows, I may have to call for reinforcements."

"As you wish." King Hubert replied.

"So, who are you going to bring?" Gobber asked.

"I wish to bring Stoick and Claudette." He replied. King Hubert spat out the tea he was drinking in shock.

"No, please, not my daughter!" King Hubert pleaded.

"I say 'nay' too!" Queen Celeste exclaimed. Hiccup sighed to himself and told them: "As hard as it may seem to wrap your heads around, Claudette has become one of the best and most fearsome warrior on Berk. She's hardly the dainty Princess she was born as; and her dragon, Whoshadow, is not only protective, but she is one of the most terrifying dragons on Berk. Very few things scare her, and those that do spook her, she annihilates."

"Ye got that right, she's been known for sendin' shields to my shop after a round o' sparring in our arena. Had to start covering' them with metal rather than leavin' them as bare wood. Also goes through steel swords faster than most of our men, she keeps chipping the blades. Luckily for the two o' us, she prefers arrows." Gobber told the royals.

"Claudette, have you forgotten your heritage?" Queen Celeste asked.

"Of course not! Have _you_ forgotten where I live now? Even the women are expected to fight on Berk." She replied.

Anora tugged on Hiccup's arm and asked: "Can I still go flying today?"

"Yeah, we've got time, and Toothless and I can join you." He replied.

"Hey, what about me?" Astrid asked.

"You could join us, or do something on your own. Now that I think about it, it's been a while since you've practiced your axe throwing." Hiccup told her.

"So, Gobber, rumor has it that you've been helping our blacksmith out these past few days." Hubert stated.

"The man's good company, an' I know how to keep a good shop, so figured I could give him a few pointers to make his even better. He's also been showing me a few tricks."

"Anything else the two of you do?" Hiccup asked.

"Nothing worth mentioning, just makin' a new friend is all an' learning about new weapons." Gobber replied. Hiccup cocked an eyebrow at him but didn't say anything else about the matter. Instead he asked if there was anyone else who wanted to go along for the search for the Vessel of fear. Fishlegs said that he would be in the library helping Hubert collect information on them; Snotlout uncharacteristically declined, saying that he met some wench who took an interest in him; Ruffnut and Eret had a date night planned with Tuffnut and Helga; Gobber was spending the day with the local blacksmith again; Astrid would have to stay with Anora; and Valka wanted to stay and help Astrid. So, with all of the other fine riders of Berk busy, Hiccup was stuck with only Stoick and Claudette.

_I guess love is in the air._ Hiccup thought as he reflected on the responses.

Ω Ω Ω

"Come on, come on! Let's get going!" Anora said excitedly.

"Yeah, Uncle Hiccup, why are you bothering with that flight suit anyway? The royals already know that you can become a dragon." Midnightfire put in.

"Just because I can turn myself into a dragon, doesn't mean I should whenever I have the chance. I prefer to use it for emergencies or wait for one of my Dragon Nights." He replied. Not three seconds after he said that did Anora turn herself into a sea green Stormcutter with lilac and blue accents, and began hovering in the air.

"Wow, Uncle Cloudjumper would be proud of you. That's a beautiful hover you're doing." Midnightfire told Anora. Hiccup saddled up Toothless, with the little ones busy, Sapphire was free to do what she pleased. The rest of them took off from the balcony.

Pretty soon, they met up with Vastra, Enya, and Thorn.

"I hope it storms soon; after beating up that monster last night, I'm running low on lightning." Enya told her siblings.

"I've got a strange feeling that there's one coming sooner than you think, my blue sister. Otherwise, maybe Mama can give you a spark." Thorn replied.

"Oh look, Midnightfire and Anora are here… Oh no, they've brought the Alpha's!" Vastra said.

"Is there something you want to tell my Daddy?" Midnightfire asked her.

"Calm down, Vastra, we're just here to make sure you cause too much trouble." Toothless put in. He looked around and asked: "Where's Whoshadow?"

"Mama's with Stormfly, Scauldy, and their riders to prepare for the monster hunt." Enya replied.

"It makes for a good chase game though." Vastra added.

"If that is the case, let's see if you younglings can keep up with me." Toothless told them.

"Wait, you want _us_ to chase _you_?" Thorn questioned. His sisters perked up with excitement at the notion.

"Just be weary of me. Five hatchlings chasing after us would give us some good evasion practice." Hiccup told them.

"Come on let's fly!" Anora told them. The five small dragons took to the air, and awaited Toothless' launch. The Night Fury skyrocketed at a near-vertical steep with the five hatchlings chasing after them.

The game went like this: If a hatchling managed to tag Toothless or Hiccup, then they won. However, the hatchlings had to put in a lot of effort into gaining on Toothless, and the Night Fury not only had someone watching his back, he was also performing tight maneuvers to dodge them. At least when they started fling through the forest, the hatchlings had a better chance at tagging Toothless, and they played long enough for each dragon to win at least one game, tire them out, and for Toothless to be satisfied with the drill.

"Alright, so who's hungry?" Hiccup asked. The hatchlings perked up again and returned to the town square where Hiccup purchased some mutton straight from the slaughterhouse, a bucket of milk from a farmer (mainly for Vastra), and a separate cooked dish for himself and Anora. During his shopping, he caught Gobber and the kingdom's blacksmith eating soft pretzels by a fountain.

"That was fun. It's not every day we get to chase our Alpha." Vastra stated.

"Yeah, it's normally the other way around. Thanks for the game, Toothless!" Thorn replied. Toothless made a purring sound and told them: "Thank you for behaving yourselves. Your mother would be glad to hear of this."

A human Anora looked over to Hiccup and asked: "Daddy, do you really have to go hunting for monsters tonight?"

"I'm afraid so; right after lunch too." He replied.

"So how are you going to have the King repay you for this favor?" Toothless asked him.

"I'm hoping that he could make good with some ships mostly. Perhaps some livestock too, we could always use some more sheep and chickens now that most dragons are eating them as well as fish." Hiccup replied.

Ω Ω Ω

When lunch was over, they flew the kids back to the palace, where they met up with their mothers and Valka.

"Take good care of them." Hiccup told them.

Claudette and Whoshadow followed Hiccup and Toothless outside where they met up with Stoick and Shadowrath. A knight gave them a piece of parchment that told them which general direction they should head, where they should land when the forest became too dense, what to watch out for, and so on… It was a big paper.

"Thank you, Sir." Hiccup stated. The knight bowed his head to him saying: "May the Gods be with you."

It was time to go on a monster hunt.

Ω Ω Ω

"This is where we land!" Claudette called out, pointing to a clearing. They descended and dismounted before continuing on into the forest. At the time it was it certainly looked spookier than they were used to forests being. The only birds to be heard were ravens, crows, and owls. Barely any sun shone through the branches, which meant that Claudette and Stoick had to carry lanterns once the sun was starting to set. Claudette actually screamed when she spotted a large spider dangling from a tree, trying to make a web.

They journeyed further into the forest, having to dodge a cloud of bats, backtrack away from a few snakes, and they even jumped when Stoick stepped on a twig that gave a loud snap.

"Sorry." He told them.

Not long after that incident, something fell on Whoshadow's head, looking down she saw that it was a…

_"__PEARS!" _She shrieked. Looking up, she found the guilty tree that dropped the sweet fruit on her, jumped onto its trunk, and gave it a zap so fierce, the bark exploded off of it, and the trunk split! Claudette looked at her and shook her head.

"I… _hate_… pears." Whoshadow snarled.

"They're still no reason for you to waste precious lightning." Shadowrath told her.

They hiked for a couple more hours before reaching the Cave of Nightmares, as legend called it. Toothless looked up and blew a hole in the entanglement of branches, providing them an escape hatch.

"Lets go quick. Mount up you two." Hiccup told them. They mounted their dragons, prepared their weapons (bows and arrows for Claudette and Hiccup, bolas for Stoick), and pressed on into the cave's entrance.

The cave opened up onto a room with a steep drop to the floor, so right now they were only on a ledge. The room was lit with eerie glowing red crystals, and on the opposite wall, the floor dropped again into a pit that must be hundreds of meters deep.

They were alone in the Cave of Nightmares for a few minutes, when the man behind the terror stepped into the room…

Cuttleclaw stood at seven feet tall, with long arms, clawed fingers (his left hand had six), pure white skin with dark veins with a long scar that ran from his forehead, over his right eye, and touched his chin; his limbs weren't that big but were still frightfully lean, his yellowed teeth had been filed to razor-sharpness and were pointed; the skin of his chin was stained red from his choice of food no doubt, his eerie eyes had black white and ice-colored irises, and his thin black hair was matted into spaghetti-like dreadlocks. His face frightened the humans enough, but his clothes had the dragons on edge. Cuttleclaw wore a long armored robe of dragon skin, and a cape of human flesh.

"I am home, my pet." Cuttleclaw announced looking down into the pit. From a pocket of his robe, he pulled out what appeared to be an amber orb, and added: "I've brought the second of seven heroic souls you need to be free. I also raped and ate a noblewomen today as well."

With a wave of his hand Cuttleclaw summoned a throne made of earth and human bones, along with a small table complete with a tea set made of stone. He sat down, poured himself a cup, and continued with: "I love the noblewomen. They're so delicate and tender… and how they plead for me to stop and show them mercy… how they scream when I'm ready to kill them. However, today, this one was so beautiful, I couldn't kill her. So after corrupting her body, I simply tied her limbs to the bed and began my feast, starting at the lower ribs, and working my way up to her sweet fatty breasts. The sounds of her screaming and wailing were like music for my meal, what a sweet song she sang for me; and when I grew tired of her song, I ate her throat. It wasn't until I tossed away the intestines and began nibbling away on her organ when I felt a small sense of regret. At this time I would've impregnated her with my spawn, and she would have to become my bride… but the married life is not for me, there are other fine noblewomen out there."

Cuttleclaw set his tea down on the table and paused for a bit, he was listening to an approaching thunderstorm, and then he said: "In fact, I smell a woman in here, right now."

He stood up, chair and table disappearing, and he slowly turned around as the dragon riders were preparing to flee. They were only a few meters away from the door to the cave, when suddenly a slab of stone slid up from the ground to block their way out.

"It's rude to leave before you're excused!" Cuttleclaw snapped. The dragons turned to face him as he continued to speak: "I _always_ reward those who find the cave, and I must congratulate you for staying as long as you have; you see most people try to flee when they see me coming, but no, you stuck around. So stay a little longer, and accept my congratulatory gifts. Now let's see, I've already have enough puppies of the moonlight… I could use a few more blood sucking bats, what do you think, Skinny Man? Care to be free from a mortal life and trade your days of your days of walking in the sun? Considering your dragon, I believe that's a fair destiny for you. As for the large man, I could make a handsome gorgon or basilisk out of you. Oh, and this delightful maiden, no wait, you're Princess Claudette, how nice of you to come; what a fine succubus I can make out of you. Oh, you'll be the envy of all my friends! Now, before I treat you all, you must meet my pet!"

With a snap of his fingers, the ground began shaking, and from the pit emerged to colossal head of a monster! It was easily twice the size of Aric's! Its flesh looked like hardened lava, with cracks exposing the blood of the earth. There were so many horns and spikes that the head was left without an identifiable shape, but the most distinctive feature of the head, were the four eyes, none of them being the same color; but each color was a shade of fears. From left to right, the eyes were as followed: purest black, nothing else, just a dark void of black; blood red with a pupil the shape of an axe head; the next eye appeared as if it was a glass orb containing fire; the final eye was a putrid green with a dead pupil, and red spots, just looking at it would make a man want to hurl, and it was the fear of illness. The gaze froze all of them in fear.

The great beast let out a roar, a mix of all possible monsters, and screams of fright and agony. The dragons were about to shit bricks, and wasted no time to get into the air, and prepare to blast the stone slab away.

"Minions, I summon you!" Cuttleclaw called out, and from the pit human skeletons with a thin layer of skin stretched over their bones and a pair of bats wings came out, and began pursuit. Toothless and Shadowrath blasted the stone slab away, and the three dragons fled, but the skeletons, maintained pursuit into the stormy night.

"Hiccup, change yourself! See if your lightning-charged plasma blasts can get them off our tails!" Toothless ordered.

He spilled out of his saddle, and spiraled into his drop as he made his change, and he wasted no time to start powering up enough plasma to start making his scales glow, and fired it into the cloud of skeletons, but they didn't stay in pieces! Instead, the pieces of the skeletons he hit assembled into a draconic figure the size of a Red Death!

_Nope!_ Hiccup thought as he turned around to start flying after the others.

Whoshadow looked back when Hiccup passed her, and was equally horrified, but a bolt of lightning struck her, charging her up further, and lightning could turn that beast to dust. So with one great charge, she disintegrated their pursuers. No time to celebrate though, everyone was terrified.

As the castle came into view, Shadowrath and Toothless blasted away the door, Hiccup returned to his human form, Toothless caught him, and the duo skidded to a halt on the floor of the entrance hall. The other two dragons had much more graceful landings.

"What the devil is going on in here?" King Hubert asked, coming in from the dining room, following him were the Queen and the Berkians. The sight that welcomed them had their knees shaking: Toothless was lying on his side with legs wrapped around a nearly hyperventilating Hiccup; both of them had slits for pupils. Whoshadow was cowering in a corner, shaking all over, with a wing wrapped around Claudette, who stood shaking in shock! Then there was Stoick, he seemed to be stuck in some sort of trance, and Shadowrath burrowed his face into Stoick's chest and started whimpering, and this was a dragon who had been through plenty of fights.

"Someone get these people and their beasts to the infirmary and get them sedated!" King Hubert called out to his servants.

"These are the bravest people of Berk, and the most powerful dragons. If they are this scared, what is to come?" Fishlegs asked, as his wife and friends were being escorted away.

Ω Ω Ω

**So what did you think? Please review. **

**Lines weren't working for me, had to improvise.**


	12. Chapter 12: The Infirmary

**Chapter Twelve: The Infirmary**

**Wow, I sure got some nice reactions on the previous chapter. I hope that my pears and my Cuttleclaw didn't scare you too much. Actually, I hope they did, it is so hard to actually find something that actually really makes you go: Nope! Holy shit nuggets! **

**Also, CHARM CASTER 1127 I really do wish that we could chat. It would be so much fun to get a look inside your head and find out how to play with your emotions.**

**Hey, the UnknownBlackHand has a dark side.**

It was a rough night for everyone at the palace; even the servants were on edge. They heard of the bravery of the Vikings who were just placed in the infirmary, and they heard of how fearsome their dragons were, and now said Vikings had to be monitored and sedated to calm their nerves, and their dragons too.

"Fishlegs, Anora and I are going to visit Hiccup and Claudette, are you coming with us?" Astrid asked.

"Yes, I'm pretty concerned for her… I don't even want to know what the Vessel of Fear looks like after what it did to them." He replied.

It wasn't that long of a walk, but once inside the infirmary, they found Sapphire hard at work trying to cheer up the frightened dragons, but it was futile. Toothless, Shadowrath, and Whoshadow remained huddled together in a corner.

"Oh no." Fishlegs thought out loud when he saw the dragons.

Standing by Stoick's bed were Valka, Snotlout, and Spitelout. The former chief still hadn't woken up from the sleeping potion the nurses gave him the previous night. Claudette had already come out of it, but she was too dazed to comprehend what was going on around her, so people had to wait for her to sober up before they began chatting. Already, Ruffnut and Helga the Mace Menace were by her. As for Hiccup, he was only just beginning to stir in his cot. Tuffnut was at his side; mainly for Gobber to have some company while he waited for Hiccup to wake, and to make sure he stayed in bed, one of the nurses had removed his false leg, while the others wore restraints around their ankles. While this measure was to make sure the patients stayed in bed until they had a clean bill of health, the nurses also wanted to make sure that they weren't cursed, or had gone mad after their encounter with the Vessel of fear.

Astrid took Anora in her arms and set her on Hiccup's bed. He woke with a start and stirred some more. Catching this motion, Valka moved from Stoick's bed, and over to his.

"Hiccup, are you alright?" She asked him.

"He needs to sober up more. Whatever it is they gave him was pretty strong. Gobber replied.

"I-It was horrible… The worst thing I ever saw."

The voice wasn't Hiccup's or Claudette's; it was Stoick's. So everyone grouped by his bed. Apparently, the sleeping aid he was given didn't need to be that strong, out of the three riders, he was the calmest, but he was still in shock.

"What was it, Stoick?" Gobber asked him.

"Its eye of fire. The eyes must be magic. I looked into the eye of fire, and saw the moment where I saw Toothless about to kill Hiccup, and the dragon shot me when I saved Hiccup. It wasn't the only thing I saw in the eye. I also saw what would've happened if I didn't save him, or if it was anyone else I held close. Each moment was getting worse and worse, until I managed to look away." He replied.

"What did it look like? How big was it?" Snotlout asked. From the corner of an eye, Astrid caught sight of Hiccup moving. He pulled out a book from his suit (the armored pieces were on the floor though) along with a charcoal pencil, and began sketching.

"The real monster was the beast's master. He is ghastly, and more fearsome than Dragon Bludvist and Dagur the Deranged combined. He sat in his cave to tell his 'pet' of how he raped and devoured a woman." Stoick told them. The group stepped back in shock, and they were so quiet that the only sound to be heard was Hiccup's pencil scribbling away in his book; but when that sound stopped, the group moved over to his bed to take a look at the pictures he finished. Fishlegs took the book in his hands. The first one was a rough portrait of Cuttleclaw's ghastly face, the latter being the face of his pet. However something caught Fishlegs's eye, it was a small black figure with the vague shape of a person.

"Hiccup, what is this smudge here?" He asked, pointing at the shape.

"That's not a smudge, that's a size comparison to my Dad." He replied dully. The book slipped from Fishlegs's hands and fell to the floor with a dull 'THUMP'.

"I'm also certain that the King wants us to fight it." Hiccup told the group. From the corner of the infirmary, Whoshadow let out a frightened shriek in response.

"Now that my father knows what's out there, and after seeing what happened to his children because of it, he will definitely have us to fight it. He will be willing to give Berk anything, if we assist him. He will even join us in this fight, so long as the thing will be defeated." Claudette told them from her bed. Now all three dragons were vocalizing in protest. Toothless even approached Hiccup and told him with baby dragon eyes: "This isn't our fight! Please back down from it. Not only do I want to never see that _thing_ again, but I don't want the dragons to see it either."

"What is he saying, Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked nervously.

"He's saying that he doesn't want the other dragons to even see the Vessel of Fear… I don't blame him." He replied.

"Did you see anything in the beast's eyes?" Helga asked.

"I made the mistake of looking into the blood red eye. I saw the moment where I took that fall that had me lose my leg, and then the point where Claudette sliced off Astrid's foot. After that I saw more people either losing limbs or heads… I can still hear their screams and my own." Hiccup replied.

"For me it was the eye of sickness." Claudette told them from her bed. They turned over to listen to her say: "When I was a little girl, there was a spread of smallpox in my mother's kingdom of origin, and one of her brothers caught it. I remember seeing him, how the illness disfigured his face, and that was the last time I saw him alive. I had too many nightmares of catching such a disease… I know that you don't want to fight in this battle, but the rewards my father will give will be great, and they will be grateful for years to come for your help."

"If we are to fight, then we'll need more troops. Mom, how would you like to fly back to Berk and collect Aric and then the Thunder Queen?" Hiccup asked.

"Are we really going to train for this?" Gobber asked.

"Yes, think of the feast that King Hubert would throw us for his appreciation. Think of the rare metals he would give you, and it would give you more time to hang out with the local Blacksmith." Hiccup replied.

It took more persuasion, and the promise of more fish and custard for the dragons, but within time, the group agreed to help the kingdom out to defeat Cuttleclaw. The problem was that Cuttleclaw, unlike Drago and Dagur, wasn't the average mortal man. In fact it was doubtful that he was even human.

"For the record, there is a rumor that the Vessel of Fear is vulnerable to either precious or rare metals. Some of them can't even stand fire." Claudette spoke.

"In that case, Gobber, I say it is time that the local blacksmith learns of the wonders of Gronkle iron." Hiccup said. He sat up, but Astrid pushed him back down.

"Astrid, I want to get up!" He told her.

"Where's your leg?" She asked. Hiccup looked down at his stump and then around the floor, but his prosthetic wasn't within reach. Astrid then told him that she wanted him to rest for another hour before getting up to anything.

Ω Ω Ω

King Hubert was overjoyed that his visit to the infirmary bore him good news. Despite the sheer terror to come, the Vikings were willing to stick around, but they requested that they bring reinforcements, both dragon and Viking. With great pleasure, he insisted on it.

Hiccup briefly told him of the Thunder Queen and their allied tribes. The King was pleased to hear that the Thunder Queen, a dragon known as the Black Typhoon, was such a powerful dragon, but he wasn't too sure about the allies. It seemed that the people of Berk had only just made peace with them; but Hiccup promised that they would behave and that they were brave warriors, so they would have to do.

He only hoped that everything would go down smoothly.

Ω Ω Ω

Now that he was free from the infirmary, his prosthetic limb now recovered, Hiccup and Toothless met up with Valka and Cloudjumper as they were preparing to leave.

"I hope you have safe journey." Hiccup told them.

"I will return. I promise you that." Valka replied finishing up her packing. She looked up to Hiccup and asked: "So, is the farewell all you came down for?"

"Actually I came down to offer you the chance to travel as your inner dragon." He replied.

"I think our allies would prefer that I show up looking the way I do now."

"Toothless offers you his Dragonstone so you can change back. Just remember the three day wait that his stone has." Hiccup told her. So with eagerness, Valka accepted her son's offer. However, when Hiccup took her hand, he actually saw her inner dragon already inside her… and everyone was going to be quite impressed. He discharged the magic, and jumped back right away. Then, he looked up, amazed with his mother!

Valka's inner dragon was a Black Typhoon!

She was smaller than the Thunder Queen, as Toothless observed, but she was still just as impressive as the Thunder Queen. She quickly shook off the dizzy spell, and took to the skies to do some practice circles and landed before Hiccup to thank him, and Toothless for giving her his Dragonstone; and with a final farewell, she took off again with Cloudjumper at her side.

Ω Ω Ω

**So that was Valka's inner dragon. Now, do you guys have any ideas as how to handle the Vessel of Fear?**


	13. Chapter 13: Time to SCREAM

**Chapter Thirteen: Time to SCREAM**

**You've been warned…**

"Was that a Black Typhoon I saw?" Stoick asked, approaching Hiccup. It had only been a moment ago since Valka had left to gather reinforcements. In fact, she was still visible to them.

"It was Mom's inner dragon." Hiccup replied. Stoick was taken aback for a moment. Of all the possible dragons, Valka's inner dragon was a Black Typhoon. If that was Valka's, and his son's was a Storm Fury, he couldn't help but wonder what his was for a little while.

As they watched Valka and Cloudjumper fade from view, Stoick took Hiccup's hand. The Dragon Chief didn't say anything, instead he looked into his father to see if he could find Stoick's inner dragon. When he found it, he wasn't too sure how Stoick would react when he found out, but Hiccup was impressed

Ω Ω Ω

Valka's journey was long and tiresome, but she managed to reach the Isle of the Thunder Queen by nightfall. However, now wasn't the time to go and search for her. If the Thunder Queen saw her as a threat, then Valka would need her strength to evade her attacks.

"You fly as if you were born to be a dragon." Cloudjumper told her. Valka gave him a draconic smile and nuzzled him.

"Thank you… Hiccup wasn't being sarcastic when he told me that there is nothing that compares to flying by your own wings. I only wish I didn't tire mine out. Even the fins of my tail need rest." She replied.

"You may be born to fly, but you're still new to it, and your wings are weak from never being used before. You do well, Valka, and you may find the day when you fly with the same grace as a Stormcutter!" Cloudjumper replied, spreading his wings.

"Modesty never was one of your virtues." Valka told him.

"That's more of a Gronkle or Hobblegrunt trait."

Egotistical tendencies aside, Cloudjumper was still pleasant company; she curled around him, as he had done for her uncountable times, and the pair stayed asleep until the morning light.

Ω Ω Ω

At dawn the pair awoke to find Lady Anora and Zephyr investigating them. Who were these strange dragons, and what were they doing on their island? They remembered Cloudjumper, a friend of their son, Shadeghost, but better known as Toothless. So who was the Black Typhoon?

"Why have you come here?" Lady Anora asked them.

"We are in need of the help of your nest." Cloudjumper replied.

"Is Shadeghost in trouble?" Zephyr asked.

"Not right now, but he and his rider may very well find enough to get themselves killed." Cloudjumper told them. The pupils in their eyes narrowed.

"Alright, we'll show you to our Queen, but first, tell us who your companion is." Lady Anora replied.

"I am Valka, the mother of Shadeghost's rider."

Valka showed them the Dragonstone Toothless lent her, and the Night Furies recognized it at once. It was the same stone that they saw Toothless make after the dragons helped him to mend his broken heart when Hiccup had supposedly died.

"In that case, not only will we show you to the Thunder Queen, but we'll be sure to give you a warm welcome." Lady Anora told them. The Night Furies turned around and showed them the way to the Queen.

Zephyr and Lady Anora bowed to their beloved Queen upon approaching her. She was bathing in a river, but didn't mind the interruption.

"Is there something I can do for you, darlings?" She asked them. Lady Anora and Zephyr motioned Valka and Cloudjumper to step forward. They bowed to the Thunder Queen before introducing themselves, and Valka had to explain her situation.

"Ah, part of Berk you are. In your case, I'll do just about anything for you and your Alphas. So what brings you here?" Thunder Queen said.

Valka explained the situation over in Claudette's kingdom, and promised that some delicious treats would await her dragons if they came. With some hesitation, she agreed to come along with Lady Anora, Zephyr, and she called on a few more dragons: A Skrill named Rogue, a white Stormcutter with pale pink and blue accents by the name of Snow, a Timberjack called Mikow, and a blue-black Night Fury by the name of Charmcast.

"Will they be enough?" Thunder Queen asked.

"They are very strong dragons and we plan on getting more reinforcements as well, however we were hoping to recruit you too." Cloudjumper replied.

"Your foe is strong and powerful, so I will go with you." Thunder Queen told them.

"Your presence will be appreciated." Valka replied.

"It is my way of thanking you for helping my nest find this island, and apologizing for what my former rider did to your nest." Thunder Queen stated. With that said and done, they joined the Thunder Queen's nest for feeding time before taking off to Berk.

Ω Ω Ω

Valka, who had reverted back to her human form, was quite surprised to find that since their departure, Goosefoot had welcomed Alvin and the Outcasts onto Berk.

"What is going on here?" She asked the Berserker Chief.

"It appears that rumor of the Dragon Chief's departure had gotten out. Just last night we were attacked by one of the Northern tribes. However, we left enough survivors to let their people know that while the Dragon Chief is away, the island is still defended." He replied.

"He came to me for assistance, in case they come back. Now what brings you here?" Alvin added.

"It seems that Claudette's kingdom is in great danger. I've come looking for reinforcements, but I'm glad you're here, Alvin, we could use your help over there as Goosefoot is looking after Berk for us. By the way, the place looks better than we left it." Valka replied.

"I run a tight and tidy ship; and Vengeance does not tolerate dragons dropping their dung wherever they please; now the dragons toilet themselves in the fields where they can fertilize crops or dead areas of forest. Now that I mention him, he has been looking for Whoshadow and his children. Alvin, if you agree to go with Valka, would you mind living Blade here and taking Vengeance instead?"

"Sounds like a fair trade to me; and of course I'll help you out Valka." Alvin replied.

"Thank you, and I'm sure that Hiccup will let you in on some of the rewards Claudette's father promises."

"So, when do we leave?" Alvin asked.

"In two days. It's been a long journey for me, and I want to be able to tell Hiccup how things are going here. I also need to recruit Aric." Valka told him.

Ω Ω Ω

It had been a few days since Valka's departure, and things were not looking good for the kingdom. During the nights they could hear the music of the children of the night, howls from wolves, the squeaking of bats, moans of specters, and the laughter of the skeleton monsters. If that wasn't bad enough, there had been reports of Cuttleclaw sightings, and those who've spotted him would go to King Hubert with chalk-white skin and could barely speak.

Hiccup was grateful to find that Claude, who'd been sent to Berk right after Valka's departure, had returned with a note saying that Valka would be returning by that evening with recruits, how well Berk was faring, and how her journey went. So the note was a relief, but Hiccup was nervous about the night to come. Cuttleclaw had been lurking in the forest nearby for quite some time now.

They were close now; Vengeance caught the sweet smell of his mate and sent sparks while roaring her name. He pulled ahead of the other dragons, taking Alvin with him, and the one-eyed Chief wasn't overly thrilled with the sudden burst of speed from the Skrill, nor did he appreciate that the hair of his beard was standing on end.

Eventually, Whoshadow and her hatchlings heard his call, and they were quick to join him. The mates hooked claws and circled once before letting go and start flying side by side.

"Whoshadow, it's been too long." Vengeance told her.

"I missed you too." She replied. It was a tender and delicate moment for them that was sweet as custard, and only the scream of a damsel turned it as bitter as the skin of a pear (to the dragons at least).

"What was that?" Vengeance asked.

Without a moment for thought, they found Toothless approaching them, and both he and Hiccup alerted the newcomers that Cuttleclaw was attacking!

_What a fine welcoming._ Valka thought sarcastically. Still, she urged Cloudjumper to dive towards the kingdom to strike. Toothless pulled up beside them and Hiccup told Valka: "Anora's inside the palace in our room along with Midnightfire." Looking over to Whoshadow's hatchlings, he ordered them to find his room and stay there. With no time to lose, Vastra, Enya, and Thorn fluttered off to their sanctuary.

As they rocketed through town, they saw the mayhem Cuttleclaw wrought the kingdom. A werewolf here, a vampire there, everywhere a freaking flying skeleton!

Unless it was some other monster they haven't heard of before.

If they dared to look up they would find the repulsive villain riding a throne of human body parts with a pair of Monstrous Nightmare wings keeping it airborne.

"CAPTURE THEM MY CHILDREN, MY PET HUNGERS FOR THEIR SOULS!" Cuttleclaw shouted from the sky.

Whoshadow had found her rider after making sure her children made it to the Haddock's room with Anora and Midnightfire. Normally the Night Fury hatchling would be out there healing the wounded dragons, but in this case, after getting a look at the monsters, she was glad that she wouldn't be taking a part in it.

The creatures were frightened at first when they saw Aric raise his head above the water, and begin freezing them in the air. He was teamed up with the Thunder Queen, as she often used her wings to blow the monsters over to him. It made for easy freezing.

The new dragons also paired up with the Berk dragons: Rogue's attention was caught by Stormfly and Astrid, and was more than happy to send his regards to the foes in lightning. Snow, the white Stormcutter, initially took a shine to Hiccup and Toothless, but they asked her to watch over a pair of riders on a Zippleback named Barf and Belch. Mikow was covering Hookfang's back, using his massive wings to slice through any monster foolish enough to approach him, but unfortunately, his wings were collecting blood and tissue with each slice and had to lick them clean after a while, and the taste of _that_ was quite repulsive, but it still didn't hinder him from defending the Monstrous Nightmare's back. Then there was Charmcast, the Night Fury helped Whoshadow to rip an incubus apart and blast away several skeletons, but with Vengeance also aiding them, she decided to go and help Fishlegs.

It turned out that Fishlegs needed Charmcast more than either party thought; while he and Meatlug were facing a group of more horrific skeleton monsters, a vampire was approaching them with hunger in his eyes.

Charmcast was swift to snatch Fishlegs, and to prompt Meatlug to chase after her. Luckily, Fishlegs remained unharmed for the rest of the battle.

However, Fishlegs was the luckiest out of the riders. From a roof, a vampiress shot an arrow into Hiccup's left arm; the twins each bore scratches, Eret was covered in ash after an attempt to blow up Cuttleclaw with Tuffnut and Helga, and so on.

That's right; things were on the positive side for Cuttleclaw and his children. At one point, to Hiccup and Astrid's horror, they heard the sound of a window breaking off of the palace, and found several skeleton monsters in a furious pursuit after Anora and her hatchling friends. Already, their daughter was in her draconic form, but she couldn't keep ahead of those beasts for long. Soon enough, Whoshadow and Vengeance joined them and began to defend their hatchlings, and they were doing their best to defend themselves.

"Hiccup, go back to the fight! The Skrills and I can handle these guys!" Astrid called down to him. Stormfly shot her spines at the monsters. She had to insist before Hiccup finally turned Toothless around and joined his father to destroy a creature that looked like a living swamp, and they didn't even take notice of the tragedy happening above them.

Snow had to give up on trying to demolish Cuttleclaw with Barf and Belch, it turned out that he was protected by a charm against fire or something like that, so she and the Zippleback retreated to the ground. They still got to blow up the occasional vampire.

Mikow and Hookfang had taken to the skies to get away from the mass of monsters swarming them, when they saw something horrible occurring with the Skrills and Stormfly. They were about to go and save them, but then a demon with the body of an orange Gronkle and the head of a Changewing pulled in front of them and breathed a putrid smelling gas on them, thus knocking both Snotlout and Hookfang out, leaving the task of saving them to Mikow, and allowing the tragedy to take full effect.

When Astrid and Stormfly were joined with Whoshadow and Vengeance, Rogue turned to help Valka and Cloudjumper watch their backs. He did a marvelous job in blowing up the orange demon that knocked out Hookfang.

Charmcast never left Fishlegs. She made up her mind that if he needed to be moved, then she would not allow him to ride Meatlug, as she was simply too slow to carry him to safety. Even though she was doing a fine job in protecting him.

"MY CHILDREN, WE GOT WHAT WE CAME HERE FOR, IT IS TIME TO GO!" Cuttleclaw announced. With that, the monsters fled.

King Hubert lost three men, but only two bodies could be found, which meant that Cuttleclaw took the third to the Cave of Nightmares. The loss to the Vikings, however, was even greater…

"Whoshadow, where's Claudette?" Fishlegs asked with Hiccup standing beside him. They held hands so Fishlegs could understand the Skrill.

"I'm afraid that they've swarmed me and stole her off my back, and now I am running frightfully low on lightning. I couldn't save her." She replied, her head hanging low. With sudden grief, Fishlegs buried his face into Meatlug's hide and wept. Not long after that, the word that Claudette was missing reached King Hubert, he was in as much grief as Fishlegs, but he maintained a brave face, and tried to console his son-in-law.

Claudette wasn't the only one who was missing. Snotlout was in a panic because Spitelout was nowhere to be seen, yes, he was gone too. Now, both Hiccup and Hubert promised a search party in the morning, but then Stormfly landed.

"NO!" Hiccup exclaimed, rushing over to the Deadly Nadder.

Stormfly's saddle was empty, and with another look they found that Midnightfire and Anora were missing too.

"We need to start searching now!" Hiccup declared. So with great haste the riders and knights paired up and headed out into the forest. Unfortunately, their efforts were almost futile. Valka was the only one to find anything, and it wasn't good.

"Hiccup!" She called, tears were welling in her eyes.

Hiccup, Sapphire, and Toothless were shocked to see what Valka had found. She held an unconscious Midnightfire with terrible cuts about her body, and a nasty tear in a wing. Even worse was the second item Valka found. It was half of the tail of a young… sea green… Stormcutter… It was the tail of Anora's dragon form.

Looking at the tail, Hiccup felt a horrible wrenching sensation in his chest as his grief took over him. His wife was lost, his niece was badly hurt, and he didn't even want to think about what happened to his child.

It was all too much pain at once, and his heart was breaking. Hiccup wrestled with his emotions, but they were too strong, he let out a heartbroken scream, and in the end his emotions knocked him out cold.

Ω Ω Ω

**… ****In Chapter Three.**

**For those of you who've been inserted, I just want to thank you for your loyalty, participation, and support.**

**Please review.**


	14. Chapter 14: Pain of Tears

**Chapter Fourteen: Pain of Tears**

_I know the pain to be felt when it comes to the loss of a wife and a child; but to lose both and see a wounded niece, at the same time, I can't imagine what that feels like._ Stoick thought as he stood outside Hiccup's room.

He wasn't that far from Hiccup when he heard the scream, and he couldn't believe what Valka had found as well as help to understand what Hiccup was going through. Now, in his hand, he held a small bowl of berries with a piece of bread tucked in there. He knew that Hiccup wouldn't be in the mood to eat, but he needed something to help keep his strength up.

Stoick opened the door and found Hiccup still in bed, but awake, and stroking Claude's head. It may not be the most unusual thing he found Hiccup doing, but at the hour it was right now, he should be up and moving around, doing anything besides laying in bed.

When he was put in bed they didn't bother putting the covers over his body, they just set him on the bed and left.

"Hey Dad." Hiccup said dully, taking a mere glance at his father.

"I brought you something to eat." He replied.

"I'm not hungry."

"I know, but you still need to eat. It's only berries and bread."

Hiccup sat up and accepted the dish from Stoick. He ate a few berries, mainly for Stoick's sake than for his own, and asked: "Do you know how Fishlegs is holding up?"

"He's pretty distraught, and has locked himself up in the palace library. He says that he's looking for ways to beat those creatures more efficiently than we have been. King Hubert and Queen Celeste have offered to help him, but he wanted to take on this task alone." Stoick replied.

"Well if he doesn't want any help with that, then we better leave him to it." Hiccup stated.

Stoick looked around and asked: "Where's Toothless and Stormfly?"

"They're out for right now, tending Midnightfire's wounds. Toothless was in here earlier trying to encourage me to do something, but I can't shake this feeling, and it is holding me down on this bed like a great weight." Hiccup replied.

"Well, you can start by moving Claude off of your chest." Stoick told him.

"This weight makes Claude feel like a feather." He replied.

"Hiccup, I know the pain you're in, and I know that it is something that you can't just shake off. When Cloudjumper took Valka, I could barely carry out my duties as chief as well as take care of you. Luckily, I had friends who could give me the push to go on, and filling in your needs also helped. I knew I couldn't give up on you, but it sometimes takes a push to move on. When Toothless lost you, he was in a terrible state, and it took his family and friends to give him the push he needed to go on to the fight where you came back to us."

"And what sort of push is that?" Hiccup asked, not really paying attention to his words. Before he knew it, Stoick grabbed the blanket he was laying on, and he gave a sharp tug, pulling Hiccup off of the bed and making him land on the floor with a crash, but that wasn't enough for Stoick, he pulled his son up to his feet and escorted him outside of the room.

"Now, let's find something for you to take your mind off of things… You could help Gobber in the smithy, or you could go flying on your own or with Toothless. Or, perhaps it would be best to meet up with some of the Thunder Queen's dragons. Go on and do whatever you like, but I am not letting you back in that room." Stoick stated. The pupils in Hiccup's eyes narrowed a bit in his glare, but he couldn't stay perturbed at his father for long.

"Can we just take a walk then?" Hiccup asked. Stoick nodded to him, and they headed outside.

Ω Ω Ω

Midnightfire's wounds had been healed, but they left scars, and her wing still had a small tear in it, but it shouldn't interfere with her flying. However, the Storm Fury hatchling still had yet to wake up, but would be fine in the end.

So, the main concern was Stormfly now. She wasn't heartbroken, like Toothless was after he lost Hiccup, but she was scared for Astrid. No matter how strong Astrid was, she was still a mere mortal human. No claws, no flame, and no wings. As far as Stormfly was concerned, Astrid was a walking meal to those monsters. The only thing keeping Stormfly's heart from being broken was the fact that she was a master of stealth, almost to the level of a Night Fury. With that in mind, Stormfly held on to the idea that Astrid had Anora with her, and she was making her way to the forest to return to her. However, Stormfly knew that the creature called 'Cuttleclaw' would not let Astrid and Anora get away with ease, and that kept up her fear for Astrid.

As for Whoshadow, her loss of Claudette sent her into a rage, but it was hard for her to vent it out on anything in this kingdom. So she went into the forest, found a pear tree, and ripped off its branches and tore off its bark with her jaws.

_Claudette, you will come back to me._ She thought to herself.

Now Snotlout was convinced that his father was still alive, but still he sought comfort for his loss; and therefore he ended up shagging one of the local prostitutes after having a little too much rum. Well, it wasn't like he had a girlfriend or anything.

Ω Ω Ω

During their walk, Hiccup didn't talk much, but when Toothless saw him, he told Hiccup that he was glad to see him up and moving about.

Hiccup also took a closer look at Midnightfire and saw that Toothless had used his Dragonstone to mend her wounds. She was awake now, and Sapphire gave her a scrap of mutton to nibble on so she could get her strength back. However, Midnightfire's mind was filled with pictures of a terrified Anora, so that was all she could eat.

"Is she going to be alright?" Hiccup asked them.

"Her heart's not broken, so I think she'll cope." Sapphire replied. Hiccup knelt down to Midnightfire and told her: "We will get Anora back." Hiccup gave her a scratch on the jaw and continued his stroll into town.

After reaching the main square, the peasants would often come up to Hiccup and Stoick to thank them for their services and express their sympathies towards the losses they've suffered. Hiccup, only half-listening to them, thanked them no matter what they said. Sometimes the peasants gave him a little token of their gratitude (a handkerchief, a pouch of chocolate, and a daisy from a little girl were among them). Seeing and receiving such gratitude uplifted Hiccup's spirits enough to keep him going, and then they approached the smithy.

"Ah, Hiccup, care to help us out here?" Gobber asked.

"What are you up to?" He replied.

"My friend and I have been making these silver crosses. They're a symbol of the religion here, but Cassius here, says that they ward off the monsters, and they've been going as quickly as we've been making them." Gobber replied. Hiccup gestured to his blue and black flight suit embossed with the symbols of Loki.

"I guess he wouldn't be too happy with that arrangement." Gobber stated.

"Who wouldn't be happy with that arrangement?" Cassius asked him.

"Our deity who gave Hiccup those eyes."

"It's a long story, and you guys are busy, but if there are weapons to be made, then I can help." Hiccup replied.

"No, I'm afraid that we're good on weapons now. Sorry, Dragon Chief, but here, take this chain and cross anyway. It may shield you better than an actual shield if you're going to keep fighting those monsters. Or you could give it to someone else you think needs protecting." Cassius told him. He accepted the trinket, and tucked it within his flight suit.

"Actually, I think we could use more arrows." Gobber stated.

"Say no more." Hiccup replied, and he set to work, leaving Stoick to go where he pleased.

Ω Ω Ω

With Claudette missing, Fishlegs in the library, Meatlug with Fishlegs, Stormfly grieving with her loss, Vengeance bonding with her hatchlings, and Toothless taking care of Midnightfire, Whoshadow sought the company of the reinforcements. That Charmcast dragon was quite helpful during the previous night.

She found Charmcast among a group of other dragons, including Toothless' parents and Shadowrath. Those three Night Furies kept to themselves, but also among the group were: Rouge, Mikow, and Snow.

"Oi, what brings you to our circle, mate?" Mikow, the Timberjack, asked Whoshadow.

"No need to get defensive, Mikow, she's one of our dragons." Shadowrath stated, and then he turned his attention back to Lady Anora and Zephyr.

"Hey now, I remember you, I helped you out last night; and I don't think we've acquainted ourselves yet. I am Charmcast."

"And I am Whoshadow."

"Hey now, you're Boltstrike's mate. Or at least you would be if he didn't change his name to Vengeance." Rouge stated.

"Changing names seems to be the trend now if you have a rider, like me, but luckily she found out my name before she had the chance to change it. I cannot believe that my Alpha prefers to go by 'Toothless' than 'Shadeghost' though." Whoshadow replied.

"Now that you say that, I can't believe it either. What self-respecting Night Fury Alpha goes by the name of 'Toothless'?" Charmcast asked.

"It's not important though." Whoshadow replied.

"You said that you had a rider. Where is she?" Charmcast asked her.

"She was taken from me last night by the monsters."

"That's got to be rough. I remember one Night Fury crying after that one fight over three years ago because he lost a rider." Snow stated.

"That was our son, Shadeghost. The rider came back to life though and helped us to find our home." Zephyr told them.

"So, are you close to your rider?" Mikow asked Whoshadow.

"She's my best friend. She may be among the weaker Vikings, but you wouldn't want to mess with her, especially when I'm around, or if she's holding a bow or a sword. She may be a Viking, but there is a dragon's spirit in her." She replied.

"In that case, you two sound like a good team." Snow replied.

Whoshadow kept on talking with these dragons as they helped to keep her burning rage and taste for revenge suppressed. She told them stories of her hatchling's antics, how she met her mate and rider, and the battles she'd been through. When she finished a story, she would settle back to listen to one coming from the other dragons, but Rouge was certainly a teller of dark and gory tales.

Ω Ω Ω

"Hiccup!" Fishlegs called out, running towards the forge with a bundle of books and papers.

"Whoa, slow down there! Now, what is it?" Hiccup asked.

"I found weaknesses to these creatures! Look here: silver, wood, symbols of religion in this area, fire… and light." Fishlegs replied.

"Are you saying that some of them can't even look at a Flightmare?" Hiccup asked.

"Exactly! Hiccup, if we had a Flightmare the monsters would have to look away, leaving them vulnerable to the Flightmare's attack! They would be defenseless against us!" Fishlegs told him. Hiccup smiled, and gave him a wink, and for the rest of the day, the pain of his tears didn't bother him.

Ω Ω Ω

**_PLEASE READ!_********_:_**

**After this story, I am ****_done_**** with my Dragonstone series!**

**I simply cannot come up with another plot that would actually be good, or even another villain that can possibly top Drago, Dagur, and most certainly Cuttleclaw. Nor do I wish to come up with another Dragonstone story. After this story I wish to go on and see if I can make a series of RotBTFD Hogwarts Edition stories. You'd find them in the Crossovers of HTTYD and Rise of the Guardians, and I'd plan to post the first chapter at the start of October.**

**DO NOT FRET THOUGH! For if you demand more Dragonstone stories, then you HAVE my PERMISSION to borrow from my plots and my original characters, so long as you give credit where credit is due, and you contact me saying that you plan on borrowing from my works. Should you do, I will make an effort to follow them. **


	15. Chapter 15: Let There Be Ah Crap!

**Chapter Fifteen: Let There Be… Ah Crap!**

Fishlegs went on and on about the monsters, mainly his focus was on the vampires and demons. As he spoke of the unholy offspring of Cassius's version of Loki (only this one was ten times worse), the Blacksmith's blood ran cold at the thought of these young soldiers fighting them.

"It's an occupational hazard." Gobber explained.

"I guess." Cassius replied.

Ω Ω Ω

For the remainder of the day, Whoshadow insisted that Fishlegs would help her train for the next battle with Cuttleclaw. Apparently Meatlug would be sitting this one out as Fishlegs was planning on going into battle as a dragon, however, she wasn't left out of the training session, and when the dragons were performing well, Fishlegs rewarded them with rocks and bananas.

Eventually, after seeing Whoshadow enjoying the training she was going through, Vengeance and their hatchlings landed and participated in the training themselves. All in all, it was good family time, with bananas all around.

Ω Ω Ω

Nightfall was a different story. Hiccup rounded up dragons and riders for the attack on the Cave of Nightmares. By now, Fishlegs was already in Flightmare form, and they were good to go.

It didn't take as long to find the Cave of Nightmares as it did before, since now they knew where they were heading, but it still took a while as they hand to land and dismount eventually to walk through the dense forest.

Now well into the hours of darkness, the Cave of Nightmares was within sight, but before making their entrance, Hiccup told them: "Now, should Cuttleclaw's beast raise its head, DO NOT look into its eyes, or you will see your worst nightmare, and be thrown into the infirmary to get the shock it will put you in treated. Do not engage the beast, because there is no certain way to defeat it, and it is far too big for one dragon and rider to take on alone. We are only here on a rescue mission."

With that over and done with, they filed inside the cave and onto the very ledge that Hiccup and Stoick stood on the first time, and already Toothless, Shadowrath, and Whoshadow were on edge by standing in the place.

At least they could sigh in relief to find that the bodies of the lost weren't dead on the floor right in front of them. So the question was, where were they? Hiccup looked over to the wall where Cuttleclaw stored the amber orbs of souls he collected and noticed that next to the soul orbs, there was a whole crystal ball that wasn't there the first tie they appeared at the cave. Not to mention, there was something _inside_ the crystal ball! It was a young sea-green Stormcutter, curled up real small.

"Anora!" Hiccup exclaimed in a hushed voice.

The original plan was to wait and capture Cuttleclaw while defeating more of his 'children', but now the game had changed. Hiccup called Tuffnut, Helga, and Fishlegs over, and they took off for the crystal ball. While Hiccup and Toothless were focused on the ball, the others were watching their backs.

Hiccup tapped the crystal, and Anora looked up to him, and had just barely locked eyes with her father before she plastered herself up against the crystal wall wanting her father to set her free.

"It's ok, Anora, Daddy's here to help you." He told her, his voice just barely audible through the crystal.

"Hurry, Dad, I'm scared!" She called back through the crystal.

"Don't worry, just stand back!" Hiccup told her. He took a couple steps back himself and conjured up a ball of fire in hopes that it would shatter Anora's prison. He threw the ball of fire, but it simply bounced off the crystal. Toothless shot a plasma blast at it, but again nothing happened save for a few micro fractures.

"Helga, come here." Hiccup ordered. With that she dismounted, and all Hiccup had to do was simply look at Helga and point towards the crystal prison to tell her that he wanted her to use her mace to break it. Helga took her mace and gave a mighty swing that shattered the crystal into bits, pieces, and dust.

"DADDY!" Anora cried out as she leapt into her father's arms. Of course, all the other humans heard were little roars.

"That's right, I'm here." Hiccup told her. He hugged her tightly, and quickly examined her tail, which ended in a clotted stump, but his magic should be able to mend it. However, before Hiccup could heal her…

"Oh, I just love happy reunions!" Cuttleclaw's foul and slimy voice sounded. Hiccup turned around, with Anora now clinging onto his back, to find the unnatural being standing at the opposite wall, with Barf and Belch snarling at him. At the moment, Fishlegs was distracted with the wall of amber orbs. Hiccup readied his bow and an arrow as Cuttleclaw began approaching them. He didn't break his stride when he snapped his fingers, and the ledge the riders and dragons were standing on suddenly vanished, and they were forced to slide down the wall, nearly crashing into Barf and Belch.

Cuttleclaw finally stopped in the center of the room, and told his audience: " I know what you all came here for, and I've decided that I'll make it easy for all of you, and give you those people I took from you. How does that sound?" He clapped his hands twice, and in came Astrid, Claudette, and Spitelout… at least that's what they used to be…

The form that was supposed to be Spitelout was unrecognizable, the only thing left of him were his eyes, otherwise he was nothing more but a shadowy creature with abnormally long arms and huge claws on his fingers.

Claudette was also quite different. While her face was fairly recognizable, her eyes now lacked pupils and were completely red, and were glowing. The leather garb she wore only covered her indecent parts, and then she had a pair of shoes. From her coccyx, she sprouted a tail; her head, a pair of curved horns; and from her shoulders, a pair of leathery wings. Well, from their first visit, Cuttleclaw told her that she'd make an excellent succubus.

Astrid was the easiest to recognize; but her blonde hair turned ink black, her blue eyes turned red, skin deathly white, and a pair of fangs extended through her lips. Cuttleclaw wanted to turn Hiccup into a vampire, but had to settle for his wife.

"Go ahead, take them, but watch out, they bite." Cuttleclaw told them.

Nobody moved.

"It's rude to not accept a gift! So if you won't take them, I'll take you!" Cuttleclaw snapped. He clapped his hands twice more to summon his pet and more minions, as the humans-turned-monsters sprang into attack!

Hiccup formed a dividing line of fire between his people and the monsters with Barf and Belch, but vampire Astrid managed to jump across the line before the flames ignited to engage in battle with Hiccup.

"Get out of here!" Hiccup ordered his people, switching his bow for Inferno. They didn't hesitate to leave.

Astrid's attack was aggressive, but she could barely stand to look at Hiccup's flaming sword, so with axe in hand, she flailed her weapon madly. Then Fishlegs flew in-between them, his glow blinding Astrid, allowing Hiccup to make a run for Toothless, who was busy distracting Cuttleclaw's pet.

Unfortunately, Claudette got past the line of flames, and tackled Hiccup to the ground. As a succubus, the next thing on her mind would be to commit adultery to her husband, and rape to Hiccup. Anora had leapt off Hiccup's back when she saw Claudette about to attack them.

"Daddy!" She cried out. Toothless saw her and swooped down to grab her, and use his tail to knock Claudette off of him. He got back up to his feet, and started running for the wall where his people made their entrance and escape. Unfortunately, Toothless was airborne, and Astrid snagged her axe on his false leg, and yanked the prosthetic off of him. Hiccup face planted into the ground, and finally had to resort to assuming his Storm Fury form. Once his change was complete, he whacked Astrid with his tail, and sent her flying into Claudette (fighting Fishlegs at the moment), and that finally allowed them to escape. They flew through the exit and after their comrades.

Now that they were gone, Cuttleclaw put out the flames, and told the girls with a scowl: "They've escaped."

"We tried our best." Astrid replied, holding up Hiccup's false leg. He was forced to abandon it.

"You're both lucky that this was your first fight; now should it happen again I'd be forced to punish you. Now, I love all of my children dearly, and I do not want to lose you." Cuttleclaw replied as if he was a father talking to small children. He looked over to Astrid and told her: "If you turn yourself into a bat, you may be able to catch up to them, Astrid. GO!"

Ω Ω Ω

Toothless was carrying Anora on his back while Hiccup healed her tail.

"There, that's better." He stated. Anora tested her new fins, and took flight herself. They weren't flying that fast right now, but behind them, there was a bat that was flying at its top speed.

"I can't believe he did that to Claudette." Fishlegs stated. Whoshadow nodded in agreement.

"I feel the same way with what he did to Astrid and Spitelout. There's nothing we can do about it right now. At least we saved Anora, so this trip wasn't a complete waste of time." Hiccup replied.

The bat caught up to them, and assumed a humanoid form.

"AAAHHH!" Astrid screamed, descending upon Hiccup. She landed on his back, and he let out a shriek. Without thinking about it twice, Fishlegs sprayed her with his paralyzing mist. Luckily, the trick worked on vampires. Whoshadow swooped down, and took Astrid in her claws.

Ω Ω Ω

When they reached the palace, Astrid was thrown into a dungeon cell where the sunlight never touched, and was given another blast of mist so she couldn't try to run out while they were locking her in.

It was a scary night for all of them, and Claudette's parents swooned after hearing what happened to Claudette. The word came from Valka, as Fishlegs remained in his dragon form for the night, and so did Hiccup and Anora.

On the positive note, Midnightfire was overjoyed to see that Anora had returned, and they curled up together for the night, with Hiccup curling around them to provide his daughter with an extra sense of security. There was no doubt that her stay with Cuttleclaw was very traumatizing for her.

"What's going to happen to Mama?" Anora asked her father.

"I'm not sure. I've never dealt with vampires before." He replied. He nuzzled her and she quickly fell to sleep; but her question left Hiccup lying awake for a few hours just thinking about Astrid's situation before he finally drifted off.

Ω Ω Ω

**What the heck is wrong with me? Please review.**


	16. Chapter 16: Teatime

**Chapter Sixteen: Teatime **

Without a spare leg, Hiccup remained in his draconic form for the day, but at least Fishlegs got his human form back.

During the day, Hiccup spent his hours meeting up with the Thunder Queen and Aric, training with Toothless and other dragons, and showing Anora how to fish as a dragon. So it was basically a day off for him, but there were points during this day where he thought about asking a couple dragons to help him locate his missing leg, but he decided that it would be best if he didn't.

Ω Ω Ω

As it turned out, a trip to the Cave of Nightmares was uncalled for.

During a night flight over the forest, Hiccup spotted Cuttleclaw approaching the kingdom. The pair of them locked eyes, and Hiccup landed, snarling at Cuttleclaw.

"Now there's no need for that, Dragon Chief. I came here for you, but not to attack you." Cuttleclaw stated. His voice only provoked Hiccup to roar at him.

"I speak Dragon-tongue; now, use your words, Chief."

"Why are you here?" Hiccup asked.

"First, revert to your human form, please, and then I'll be happy to answer your questions. Do not worry, my children aren't with me this time, and I am unarmed." Cuttleclaw replied.

Hiccup recalled the little trick he performed in the Cave of Nightmares, where Cuttleclaw summoned a table and a tea set. Who knows what else Cuttleclaw may have up his sleeve? Still, he wanted answers; so he sat down to revert to his human form.

No sooner than he was human again, Cuttleclaw summoned a chair from underneath Hiccup, which strapped him to his seat!

"What is the meaning of this?" He asked with a snarl.

"To make sure you don't tip off." Cuttleclaw replied calmly. With a wave of his hand, he summoned another chair for himself, a table, and a tea set. He smiled to himself, and approached Hiccup with his hands tucked into his sleeves. Hiccup braced himself for a hidden weapon to be drawn, but it turned out that Cuttleclaw had brought his prosthetic with him.

"Astrid and Claudette send their love." Cuttleclaw told him, waving the false limb tauntingly in front of Hiccup's face. He dropped the limb on Hiccup's lap, and left him to fit it back on his stump.

"Now, it's time for tea." Cuttleclaw declared gaily as he took his seat.

"I'll pass." Hiccup told him.

"It's rude to refuse tea from your host."

"It's also not only rude, but a crime, to take your guest's family away from them and do… _whatever_ it was you've done to them."

"So let's mind our manners here. Have some tea." Cuttleclaw replied, serving Hiccup and himself a cup.

"How do I know it's not tampered with?" Hiccup asked.

"With _tea_? Now _that_ is _beyond_ a crime, it would simply be barbaric!" Cuttleclaw exclaimed, taking a sip from his cup. Hiccup looked at him as if he had gone completely insane… not that Cuttleclaw was already more psychotic than Dagur the Deranged.

Hiccup picked up his cup, hesitantly, and took a sniff from the hot liquid. He knew the scents of most poisons, and he couldn't detect anything dangerous in it, but to satisfy Cuttleclaw for right now, he only pretended to take a sip from it.

"So, how was your day?" Cuttleclaw asked ever so casually.

"Why do you care?" Hiccup asked, distraught from hearing such a friendly question from his most terrifying foe.

"After seeing you fight Astrid last night, I became fascinated with you. That normally doesn't happen, but at any rate I decided that I should get to know you before we get into another fight so I can harvest your soul to help free my pet."

"Gee, thanks. Well if you really want to know, I spent it doing dragon stuff. Without a spare leg, the only other option was to heal it, and I'm rather fond of my prosthetic."

"Ah, a relaxing day for the Dragon Chief then."

"So, why are you picking this time to free your pet?" Hiccup asked.

"The poor thing has been cooped up for centuries. He needs his exercise, but there are mystical forces keeping him locked up. So, when I free him, I'm going to take him for a walk, and our path will bring a Dark Age, where he will feed upon the fear of humanity, and then we will be the kings of the world." Cuttleclaw replied.

"The last time I met someone who wanted to take over the world, I ended up turning him into a Terrible Terror and then he got eaten by a Skrill. Apparently he didn't agree with the Skrill, because she ended up puking him back up." Hiccup told him with a smug. He did end up building enough nerves to try the tea now.

"Oh yes, his soul took the form of one of my werewolves!" Cuttleclaw declared. Hiccup spat his tea onto the ground, and he looked over to Cuttleclaw with wide eyes as he continued saying: "He's big, black, and ever so fluffy! However the poor dear is missing his nose and his left arm. I had to make him some claws of steel to replace it."

"What about Dagur the Deranged?" Hiccup asked.

"Missing an arm, but he makes for an amazing Beast of Shadows. I can't wait to show you to him! He and Astrid have been getting along quite well before you took her away from him."

Hiccup's cup slipped from his hand and shattered on the ground.

"Oh, dear, you've dropped your tea." Cuttleclaw stated. With a snap of his fingers a new cup appeared, and he served it to Hiccup.

"Now, it seems to be that you're harvesting certain souls." He told Cuttleclaw.

"Only the souls of brave heroes can free my pet. Now let's exchange weaknesses: My pet and I cannot stand the sound of laughter, and only the soul bound in the wrong body since birth can destroy my pet, and that is only when it is inserted into my collection. By the way, nothing happens to my pet when you remove one of the souls from the collection. Now your turn."

"Dragons are afraid of eels and pears." Hiccup replied.

"That's not much to go on… but I think I can make it work." Cuttleclaw stated. He locked eyes with Hiccup and said: "It must be lots of fun having dragon blood running through your veins."

_My blood is as human as my parents'; it is only my eyes, scales, and soul that are draconic right now._ Hiccup thought, but he told Cuttleclaw: "Yes it is, although I try to limit myself on how much time I spend in my dragon form."

"How did you get your abilities?"

"A Dragonstone, and a small gift from Loki." Hiccup replied. He took a few more sips of tea before Cuttleclaw stood up and told him: "Well, it's been fun talking to you. I look forward to ripping you to pieces. You see, I captured the last souls I needed today to free my pet. I will give you three days to prepare. I like my enemies to go down fighting." He freed Hiccup and took his leave.

Ω Ω Ω

"Where were you, and how did you get your leg back?" Valka asked; she was holding Anora. She must've gone to Hiccup's room to check up on him and put Anora to bed. Stoick was standing beside his wife.

"I had tea with the enemy, and he gave my leg back to me."

"How is it that you're not hurt, or even that you don't look like you've lived through your worst nightmare?" Stoick asked.

"It is because Cuttleclaw only wanted me to have tea with him and have a nice chat. Bad news though, he's turned Dagur and Drago's souls into his monsters." Hiccup replied.

Suddenly, doors throughout the hall opened, and the Vikings poked their heads out through them to stare in shock at Hiccup.

"Yeah, you all heard me! Drago and Dagur are back but as monsters of our nightmares this time. One's a werewolf missing a nose and arm, and the other a Beast of Shadows. We have three days before they attack" Hiccup announced.

_NO ONE_ slept all the way through that night without having a nightmare.

Ω Ω Ω

**MWUAHAHAHAHA!**

**"****AARROOOO!"**

**"****SHUT ****_UP_**** DRAGO!" **


	17. Chapter 17: Wrath

**Chapter Seventeen: Wrath**

After hearing that Drago and Dagur were going to return, Whoshadow went ballistic, to the point where she was not only scaring humans and her children, but Vengeance was also keeping his distance from her.

Shadowrath was also very displeased to hear about Drago's return. He knew the full story of the events that happened between the villain and Stoick; and because of it, he made sure that Whoshadow, and the other dragons, understood that he had the first claim on Drago's life.

"Not to worry, my friend, it is Dagur that has my attention; but a word to the wise, I wouldn't recommend _eating_ Drago. He gave me horrible indigestion and stomach pains. I ended up having to barf him back up." Whoshadow told him.

"It is not my desire to devour Drago; that is not to say that I won't bite his head off should the opportunity be given." He replied. A moment later he asked Whoshadow: "So, what do you think you'll do to either Cuttleclaw or Dagur?"

"Patience is a virtue my friend. Don't worry there will be lots of lighting, and destruction in my wake when I face them." She replied, sparks discharged around her as she spoke, and not too long after that, a clap of thunder sounded. Whoshadow looked back to Shadowrath, and told him: "Please excuse me, that storm is calling my name."

Whoshadow took flight, and was joined with Vengeance and her children to harvest the lightning. They were in the heart of the storm, and collected more lightning than they ever had before. Yes, while the thunder and the great flashes of lightning struck fear into the hearts of the people, tonight was a wonderful night to be a Skrill.

Also, during this dark and stormy night, the Dragon Chief gave his people and dragons an idea as to how to face the Vessel of Fear.

Ω £ Ω

A day before the next attack from Cuttleclaw, Astrid broke free from her cell.

One of the guards mistook her form for being asleep when he opened a hatch in the door to pass her a stein of pig's blood. Just as he stuck his hand through the hatch, she snatched his wrist, bit into his arm, and began feasting on his savory life force.

With blood dripping from her fangs, and now at full strength, she broke through the door, leaving the guard for dead.

After hearing this, Hiccup was rather disturbed, and at the same time, it made him start looking forward to the battle with Cuttleclaw, now that he knew how to defeat him.

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Then, the dark day arrived.

It was actually a literal dark day, as by midday, the great moon blocked out the sun, spreading awe and darkness all over the kingdom.

Cuttleclaw was coming.

Dragons were perched on every building, but to their sheer horror, Cuttleclaw had brought the impossible with him! Standing around the walls of the kingdom were _enormous_ pear trees that could walk around and flail their branches around to throw their sweet fruit.

"_PEEEAAAARRRRSSS!"_ Whoshadow screeched. Charmcast hissed in disgust. With the Skrill sparking in rage, the duo roared furiously and dove into their attack with the walking pear trees, but then they noticed something. The trees were holding vines, and at the other end of these vines were large eels.

"Oh, bloody hell, no!" Charmcast exclaimed. She charged up a powerful plasma blast, and blew a tree to smithereens before retreating with Whoshadow.

"No, wait, where are you going? Those trees need to be destroyed before they demolish the kingdom!" Thunder Queen told them.

"It's the eels!" Charmcast snapped.

"In that case, call for the aid of Mikow. Like a Typhoomerang, he, somehow, can devour the meat of eels." Thunder Queen replied. She turned and gave a mighty wing blast to an approaching flock of flying skeletons.

It turned out that Whoshadow and Charmcast didn't have to even ask Mikow to face the repulsive eels. Already, the Timberjack had swooped down and began slicing up the beasts with his sharp wings.

_I'm going to be eating well tonight._ Mikow thought as he bit off an eel's head and set one of the pear trees alight. He then ascended into the sky to turn some flying demons into mincemeat…

… And he did.

From the slicing abilities of Mikow's wings, the effect was a spectacular downpour of demons' guts all over the kingdom, thus leaving a hearty feast for the crows and vultures.

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This time around, Snow was teamed up with Rogue. The pair flanked Stoick on Shadowrath, and the group only really engaged in the fight if something attacked them, right now they were scouting for a single werewolf; and it was the one that was missing an arm and a nose.

Unfortunately, there was something that they didn't predict about the werewolf known as Drago; on this dark day, Drago was on the back of a creature, still waiting in the forest for the right time to strike. The beast was easily twice the size of a Timberjack; and although solid, it appeared as if it were made of smoke and shadows. The few characteristics that could be defined were: eyes of flame and blood, a slightly rounded head, and a massive pair of wings.

The Beast's name was Dark, and his purpose was to suck joy and happiness from the world.

All that joy to feed off of had actually made Dark the happiest creature in the world, and as a bringer of misery, he loved his job.

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As if the army Cuttleclaw brought wasn't bad enough, it was time for him to bring in the main attraction.

"My pet, it is feeding time!" Cuttleclaw announced.

From below the surface of the earth, the Vessel of Fear tunneled it's way through the forest floor and into the dark day, showing it's horrifying eyes to those who dared to look into them, and the handful that did, were reduced to cowering dogs on the spot. They would drop their weapons and curl up into balls, making them easy prey for Cuttleclaw's children. They would swarm those who were plagued by terror given to them from the Vessel of Fear, and convert them to another child of Cuttleclaw, as they have done to Astrid, Claudette, and Prince Salomon.

Now with things looking bleak for the Kingdom, it was time for the Vikings to summon their secret weapon.

Valka was hovering over the sea now, and she sounded a war cry, as she spun her staff over her head, and from the depths of the waters, Aric emerged. A Bewilderbeast as wise as he would not fall victim to seeing his fears in a monster's eyes, and with a great breath, he froze a whole flock of the flying skeletons.

_Well played, I didn't see that coming._ Cuttleclaw thought. To gain advantage again, he finally brought Dark into the game.

With Aric in an intense battle with the Vessel of Fear, there were less people who had the chance to look into the creature's eyes. Good, now there were less easy targets for Cuttleclaw to convert into his children.

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From above, Hiccup spotted the Drago werewolf riding Dark, and he quickly reported the sighting to Stoick and Shadowrath. The pair quickly ascended to attack their old foe.

Shadowrath soon hooked his claws into Drago's flesh, and took him for a ride, and leaving Dark to fight without a rider to watch his back.

Drago eventually slipped from Shadowrath's claws, but his plummet to the ground didn't kill him, and so Shadowrath and Stoick chose to land, and commence brawling with the werewolf.

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Then there came the beast of the shadows that was missing part of an arm, there was no doubt that this was Dagur!

Did Cuttleclaw have to make him so powerful?

On his one hand, he had long claws akin to the blade on Death's scythe, his back had sprouted grotesque feathered wings, his body was tall and lean, he had a prehensile tail, his face was that of a snake, and although he kept the same wild eyes they now shot heated projections of light.

Whoshadow was not impressed.

She took into Dagur's eyes and recognized him on the spot, only to let out an ear-piercing screech before, the pear trees would have to wait, and she launched into an attack that would show Dagur the sheer lightning wrath of a Skrill. Her eyes were glowing red and she was sparking like crazy. Whoshadow snapped madly at any part of Dagur's body she could reach with those viscous jaws.

"Has she always been this crazy?" Charmcast asked Vengeance.

"Yes, and it's one of the reasons why I love her." He replied. He looked down and spoke: "Come children, it is time for you to show these monsters what happens when they mess with mighty Skrills!"

Dagur roared in agony as Whoshadow tore the remnants of his bad arm straight out of its socket! He looked at the chunk of his arm in Whoshadow's maw and fled to the skies with Whoshadow pursuing after him.

"We'll start by assisting your mother." Vengeance told his children.

"May I join you?" Charmcast asked.

"That is as long as you're done fighting the pear trees for now." Vengeance replied.

"They can wait." Charmcast told him, and so with that, they took off to put Dagur in deep shit. Charmcast wasn't too worried about the pear trees, not with Mikow working on slicing up the eels they were walking.

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Hiccup and Fishlegs were teamed together, scouting the battlefield for Claudette and Astrid. Right now, Fishlegs was riding Sapphire, leaving Meatlug to carry Cassius, who was fighting with Gobber.

Midnightfire and Anora were also with them, Anora in her dragon form. They really should be hidden within the palace, but they didn't want a repeat of Cuttleclaw's last attack so they flanked Toothless.

Fishlegs kept his eyes peeled on the ground, while Hiccup focused more on the sky, but nobody was watching their backs as a bat was closing in on them. The bat soon shifted into vampire Astrid.

"YYYYAAAAAHHHH!" She screamed as landed on Toothless' back. She was ready to sink her fangs into Hiccup's neck, but he drew Inferno and ignited the blade, and the bright light of the sword's flame forced Astrid to shield her eyes.

"Yeah, you don't like that do you?" Hiccup said Astrid bore her fangs and hissed at him.

"Sapphire, would you mind getting her off of my back and carrying her for a while?" Toothless asked.

"Not a problem, Love." She replied, taking the weight of Astrid off her mate's shoulder, but she struggled in Sapphire's claws.

Not two minutes later, they spotted Claudette performing evasive maneuvers, trying to escape from a pursuing Rogue and Cloudjumper. She was armed with a quiver of arrows and a bow, and from the looks of cuts to be spotted, and tears in wings, Claudette had been using them.

She was impossible to catch, it wasn't that she was too fast (even though she was among the fastest of the demons), it was because of all the other demons getting in the way, and how unpredictable her moves were.

Having grown tired of being carried around in Sapphire's claws, Astrid concentrated, and changed into a bat, and was able to escape from them.

"Dad, Mommy's gone!" Anora exclaimed. Hiccup looked over to the stunned Sapphire and released a string of curses in his head.

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Four hours into the battle, numbers on both sides were going down, the kingdom even lost Cassius, who had been turned into a frightful fire demon.

"ENOUGH!" Cuttleclaw shouted by the time he heard his pet scream after Aric gored him several times with his tusks. Through supernatural powers, Cuttleclaw soared up to his pet's head and announced: "IT IS TIME TO END THIS VULGAR DISPLAY OF RUDENESS!"

Cuttleclaw pressed his hand against the snout of his pet, and he vanished in a puff of smoke. The pet groaned as it developed a third set of eyes, matching Cuttleclaw's, grew a pair massive arms with gigantic claws, a hole developed in the beast's belly which shot live flying spiders made of stone, and it grew a pair of fairly short wings.

One boss monster, stone spiders, demons, flying skeletons, risk of becoming monsters, old foes having been resurrected, and _pears!_ It was time for the Vikings to die from fright!

**_To Be Continued_**

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*** Psychotic Laughter ***

**"****Nurse, the UnknownBlackHand, the poor darling has gone insane!"**

**Nurse: "We're doomed."**


	18. Chapter 18: Annihilation of the Pears

**Chapter Eighteen: Annihilation of the Pears**

**Shadowdragon1317 and Charm Caster1127, this one is for you two, and for all of my great fans out there… It is also dedicated to all haters of pears.**

**And seriously, you're going to need to brace yourselves for the most twisted form of epic-ness to follow.**

Everything looked bleak for the kingdom, but then Hiccup recalled the weakness that Cuttleclaw told him… That weakness was laughter! Quickly, he closed his eyes and dug into his memories, from his dad suddenly coming back from the dead at his wedding, to Astrid laying an egg!

Such happy memories made Hiccup laugh, he looked psychotic with all the destruction going on around him, even though it was nearly impossible for the warriors to hear him, but the Vessel of Fear heard it, and it was ear piercing to him. Hiccup then took Anora from the air and tickled her belly, making her laugh, and it had an even greater effect on the Vessel of fear because she was a child. Then, something dawned on Hiccup: the twins, they always seemed to be either laughing or screaming.

"Fishlegs, keep tickling Anora, and see if you muster a few laughs yourself! The Vessel of Fear cannot stand the sound of laughter." Hiccup ordered.

"Where are _you_ going?" Fishlegs asked.

"Off to do something totally insane, and maybe a little stupid." Hiccup replied.

"Which is?" Fishlegs pressed.

"I'm going to unleash Ruffnut and Tuffnut's inner dragons."

"I'm going to need a new set of underpants after this." Fishlegs thought aloud.

Hiccup and Toothless turned about and pursued after the twins. They caught up to them soon enough, and helped them to destroy the foe bugging them.

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, how would you two like to take one of my Dragon Nights, right here right now?"

"Are you serious?" Ruffnut asked.

"I've never been more serious in my life." Hiccup replied.

"What's the catch?" Tuffnut asked.

"You need to goof off as much as you can without destroying the kingdom. Try to make this battlefield a joke! I need the people to be laughing!" Hiccup told them.

"We're in!" They called out. Hiccup extended his arms, and the twins took his hands, and he discharged his magic to change them.

"Thank the gods that we're not on Berk right now." Hiccup stated once he saw the result of their inner dragons: Tuffnut was a green and white Typhoomerang, and Ruffnut was a Fireworm Queen! Hiccup looked over to Scauldy and told them: "Keep them from burning the place down."

The bright light coming from Ruffnut's scales was unbearable for the eyes of the monsters, and so she ended up chasing away a lot of them with a wide smile on her face. Now Tuffnut was using his flames to trap the monsters so the Thunder Queen and other dragons could do what they pleased with them. It was a good thing that the flames concealed the worst of the action in those burning rings of fire, because some of that action was pretty disturbing.

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"Alright, Toothless, I need to get back to Cuttleclaw's cave." Hiccup said.

"Are were going to bring anyone to watch our backs?" He asked.

"Fishlegs, Sapphire, Stormfly, and out daughters of course. Now, c'mon, who knows how much time we have left?" Hiccup replied.

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Now the heart of the action was taking place around Whoshadow and Shadowrath, as they were fighting their old foes.

Drago, Dark, and Dagur had since teamed up and they were facing not just Shadowrath and Whoshadow, but: Stoick, Vastra, Enya, Charmcast, Thorn, and Vengeance. Vastra and Enya were going straight for Dagur and Dark's faces to keep them from protecting Drago. Thorn, on the other hand, was gnawing at Drago's legs and feet, while Stoick was swinging his axe at the black beast. The injuries Thorn inflicted normally would've made Drago easy pickings for the battle, but the false arm that Cuttleclaw made for him worked as an excellent shield. It blocked Shadowrath's plasma blasts, and he was strong enough to take great blows without them hurting him.

"Whoshadow, if we use our lightning, we can end all three of them on the spot." Vengeance stated.

"NO! Our lightning must be reserved for the pears! I WANT TO RIP OUT THE VERY LIFEFORCE OF THIS ASSHOLE WITH MY PROUD FANGS AND CLAWS!" She roared. Then, to her right, she heard the scream of the werewolf and found him being pinned down by Shadowrath. Unfortunately, the werewolf's strength was far greater than they had anticipated, Drago threw the Night Fury off of him, and with his false arm, he used the dagger-like laws to severely gore the lower half of Stoick's left calf. The former Chief suppressed the urge to let out the howl of agony rising up in his lungs and trying to pass through his mouth. He held it in like the proudest of Vikings could and Thorn soon plastered himself on Drago's face and tore out the werewolf's eyes and devour them. With that done, and the Skrill hatchling now out of the way, Stoick raised his axe and brought it down on Drago, splitting his pathetic face in half.

Not wanting to experience the same fate as his rider, Dark took flight, and fled the scene, and Shadowrath rushed Stoick to the infirmary where he would get some medical attention.

Stoick will be fine, but as he was being taken care of, Whoshadow was still in a fierce battle with Dagur. She had shooed Vastra away from his face, and she had plastered himself on Dagur's chest. With the great talons on her wings, Whoshadow slit Dagur's throat; with savage claws she tore open his chest in order to rip out his heart and eat it; and with the brute strength of her jaws, she yanked off his head! With the head in her jaws, Whoshadow flew up to the eyes of the Vessel of Feat to show off her prize. She looked into all six of them, and didn't even shiver. She even went as far as to spit Dagur's head into the right eye of Cuttleclaw and roared to him: "YOU DO _NOT_ SCARE ME! I AM THE GREAT AND ALMIGHTY WHOSHADOW! I AM THE DEVOURER OF FOES, THE WINGS OF LIGHTNING, AND THE BRINGER OF DEATH! AND I SWEAR THAT I WILL MAKE YOU KNOW AND FEAR MY NAME AS I LAUGH IN YOUR FACE!"

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Whoshadow Devourer of Foes Wings of Lightning and Bringer of Death, I am the Vessel of Fear, and I am here to destroy you."

Now Charmcast and Vengeance joined Whoshadow and the three dragons flew straight at the Vessel of Fear's face and each of them destroyed one of the six eyes by the cruelest means they had. As they flew away, the Vessel of Fear roared: "MY CHILDREN OF THE PEARS, PLEASE DESTROY THE FOES WHO'VE CRIPPLED YOUR MASTER!"

"Death by pears? HA! It's not going to happen!" Whoshadow called back.

Then, to her horror, the walking pear trees all merged together to create one massive tree, and the pears now had mouths with fangs in them.

"Oh f*** you, Cuttleclaw!" Whoshadow swore.

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"Now that is terrifying." Fishlegs stated when he saw Ruffnut and Tuffnut's inner dragons.

"Yeah, I'm just glad that we're here and not on Berk anymore. Now, let's go, Bud, we need to get to the Cave of Nightmares." Hiccup replied.

"Wait, Hiccup, I am their Alpha, I shouldn't leave them here." Toothless stated.

"You want to stay here?" Hiccup questioned.

"No, I want to go with you, but it is my duty to help my dragons." Toothless replied.

"Alright." Hiccup told him. After collecting Stormfly, he leapt onto her back, and wished Toothless good luck. Then Hiccup told Toothless: "Remember, the monsters cannot stand light and laughter, I thin it may be wise if you made another one of your Dragonstones."

"You got it." Toothless replied. With that, Hiccup and Fishlegs started heading for the Cave of Nightmares, while Toothless rounded up the dragons in preparation of making a new Dragonstone.

The Vessel of Fear spotted the dragon riders flying in the general direction of his cave and split back into two entities, and one-eyed Cuttleclaw went in pursuit of them.

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Unfortunately for the dragon riders, their wives were guarding the souls in the wall, and to make matters worse: Anora and Midnightfire had to tag along.

"Well, Astrid, Claudette, it is good to see you again." Hiccup stated, but they weren't amused. Instead, they jumped right into the fight, the dragons and Fishlegs took on the opponents, and Hiccup, even though he had Inferno drawn, was actually trying to stay out of it otherwise someone would unleash his inner dragon.

It was a rough fight, due to the fact that the women kept getting in Hiccup's way as he was trying to reach the souls. Or they ended up dragging him away from them.

"Come on, Astrid, I'm here to help you." Hiccup groaned after she dragged him away from the souls for the third time.

"DO I LOOK LIKE I WANT TO BE HELPED? LOOK AT ME NOW; I'M STRONG, POWERFUL, AND A GREATER WARRIOR THAN EVER! I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP OR ANYONE ELSE'S! I DON'T EVEN WANT TO LOOK AT YOUR SAD LITTLE FACE AGAIN. HOW FOOLISH I WAS TO STAY MARRIED TO YOU! WHAT HONERABLE WARRIOR LIKE MYSELF MARRIES A DRAGON? WHAT HONERABLE WARRIOR EVEN MARRIES? NO MORE OF THAT FOR ME, AND NO BURDEN OF MOTHERHOOD!" Astrid snarled. Her words stabbed Hiccup in the heart like a dagger, but he knew that wasn't Astrid talking. She truly loved Hiccup and Anora; Anora's existence was the proof of that.

Hiccup also noticed that from the wall of souls, one of the orbs had a glow that pulsated. It was as if the soul in that orb wanted to break free and tell Hiccup that everything that the vampire told him was a lie.

Now, Hiccup and Astrid were connected to each other through love, and perhaps, love would break the soul free. Hiccup tackled the vampire to the ground and kept her arms pinned, he lowered his head, and kissed the struggling vampire's lips. He held the kiss for a moment before he heard the sound of glass shattering. Hiccup looked up to see an amber light flying towards them and into the vampire's mouth. Hiccup got off of Astrid as she started screaming, and suddenly a shadow figure came out of her mouth as her hair turned from black to gold.

She was human again.

"Hiccup!" She exclaimed as she threw her arms around him.

The roof of the cave exploded to reveal Cuttleclaw, just before he landed in the middle of his cave.

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The demons and other monsters were retreating as the process of making the Dragonstone was taking place. The eventual explosion had every one of them fleeing, except for the massive pear tree. The Thunder Queen took the resulting rock and hid it near the palace, but for now, the dragons had one last foe to fight… the tree.

"FLY MY PRETTIES, FLY! MAKE YOUR MOTHER PROUD AND DESTROY ALL PEARS!" Whoshadow cried out as her children led the charge to the immense pear tree. The crazed Skrill screeched as she was powering up her full charge, turning her eyes into a glowing red.

The tree kept throwing the fanged pears at them, missing on occasion, but when they caught on dragons, they started mauling them, and it felt like being eaten alive by piranha.

Whoshadow, Rogue, Vengeance, and Charmcast were charged up to maximum power now and first, the Skrills discharged, Whoshadow causing the most damage because she was the largest. The tree screamed with thousands of voices of the agonized pears. Then, Charmcast finished it off with a supercharged plasma blast.

It was a most amazing display!

The tree was destroyed in an awesome explosion of a most brilliant light, and the destruction of the pears on the branches sounded like firecrackers as they all exploded one by one. As for the tree… What tree? All that was left of it was ash and singed woodchips… Actually, they were more like splinters.

Dark, who had been circling the scene, was quite impressed to see that these dragons were a strong and powerful team.

"Good job my children. I hate pears." Whoshadow said. They had done a wonderful job lending their lightning to destroying this foe.

"Onward, my dragons, we're going to the Cave of Nightmares!" Toothless called out, and off they flew. It was a fairly quick fight, and they passed over Cuttleclaw's fleeing army. However, they did leave Aric and Thunder Queen to keep attacking Cuttleclaw's pet.

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"I told you, Hiccup, that removing the souls would have no affect on the Vessel of Fear, and you need a person with the soul born into the wrong body to defeat me. Now Claudette, you may be outnumbered, but you can still break their hearts! Get them for me, darling!" He hissed. He didn't notice the kingdom's army landing behind him and guarding the remains of the cave from letting Cuttleclaw's army in.

"Wait, please, I wish to tell you something, Cuttleclaw!" Hiccup exclaimed.

"Hold that thought, Claudette, let the Dragon Chief speak his last words." He ordered.

"I remember what you have told me, Cuttleclaw, and I thought that you should know that I was born with the soul of a dragon!" Hiccup announced, now it was Cuttleclaw's turn to feel fear. As Hiccup stuck his hand into the empty slot!

"NNNNOOOOO!" Cuttleclaw screamed. In the distance, he could hear Whoshadow's laughter.

It was like sticking a bare wire into an electrical outlet. A surge of power enveloped Hiccup into a world of spasms and suppressed screams, as the soul slot was pulling his out of his body. As the soul slot was collecting Hiccup's draconic soul born in a human body, the other orbs holding more souls shattered, the lights bursting free from them returning to their rightful bodies.

Claudette's flying body was suddenly deprived of its wings when her soul returned. She fell with a yelp but her fall was on the softer side.

Cuttleclaw was screaming at the top of his lungs as if Hiccup had started torturing him. His captured souls were being freed and the curses he placed upon his minions were being lifted, even in a certain dungeon cell at the palace, Solomon and Sir Dillard were also being freed from their curses.

Back where the battle had taken place, the pet was screaming as his master had been. The remaining two eyes on the beast popped like zits shortly before his head exploded. The body fell in a dramatic tumble, and disintegrated into ashes, but rising from those ashes were grey worms. You see, fear can never die, but it can be reduced.

Now back to the Cave of Nightmares: Hiccup's soul had been torn form his body and contained in a green orb. Right after the creation of the orb, a flame shot out from his ass hole and he rocketed to the sky, spinning like a discus, screaming girlishly. Cuttleclaw ascended about five hundred feet before exploding into a spectacular array of bright pink and yellow sparkles like a big firework! The hatchlings were laughing their tails off!

Fishlegs and Astrid were gathered around Hiccup's body. Although his form breathed and his heart was still beating, it was lifeless at the same time. It was no problem though; Astrid got down and kissed her husband's lips. The orb containing his soul shattered, and Hiccup was back!

"That wasn't fun at all!" Hiccup said; he was referring to having his soul sucked out of him.

"At least you're back." Astrid replied, helping him to his feet.

"WHOSHADOW!" Claudette exclaimed. The Skrill ran up to her rider and nuzzled her madly before giving her a lick on the cheek.

"Claudette, your hair is gold again!" Fishlegs told her. He was surprised really, Claudette had kept her hair black for so long that people had forgotten what color it was.

"What? Oh dang! Now I'm going to have to dye it again!" She replied.

"How about after the coronation? For that day you can be a princess for your family." Fishlegs suggested.

Astrid turned her attention to Stormfly and reunited with her beloved Nadder.

"DAD, YOU'RE BACK TOO!" Snotlout exclaimed upon seeing Spitelout heading towards the cave.

"Come on, let's get back to the kingdom." Hiccup told the group.

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The return trip to the kingdom held a surprise for the people of Berk, for one thing, the solar eclipse was gone, and rather than demons, they were seeing dragons all over the place! Then, they reached the kingdom, and standing beside the Thunder Queen was the largest Night Fury they had ever seen! Also, unlike any other Night Fury seen before, this one was pure white with red eyes.

"Dragon Chief, this was the creature flying the werewolf whom you called Drago. He is Alpha White Light, and a number of the monsters we were fighting were his dragons" The Thunder Queen stated.

"I with to thank you, your people, and your dragons in saving my nest. The Cave of Nightmares was our home before Cuttleclaw invaded it a long time ago, and he overpowered us, and converted us into his children. He started by bringing me down and converting me from a bringer of joy into an instrument of misery by changing me into a demon named: Dark."

"Wow, it sounds like an interesting story, but for right now, I just can't get over how amazing a dragon you are! I've never seen a Night Fury of your size and coloration before." Hiccup replied.

"I'm an albino, we're very rare. My dragons are mostly disabled and battle-scarred, but after the affair with Cuttleclaw, we have been rejuvenated somewhat, but now we can actually be happy again."

"Do albino's have anything else special aside from their coloration?" Hiccup asked.

"We are normally weaker than other Night Furies, but when I get into Alpha mode, all off my scales glow into a blinding light, and my plasma burns hotter than Fireworm's skin." White Light replied. Hiccup would keep tabs on this great dragon, and Toothless told him that he and his dragons would be welcomed on Berk for visits.

In the meantime, it was time to return to the palace, and prepare for Salomon's coronation to take place in two days now. Despite his dastardly actions, Hiccup found it in his heart to forgive the Prince. His own sister had already punished him, and he had a feeling that the curse put on him made him act like that anyway. So, he would take the throne, but he would have to work harder to be a king that the people would love.

Right now, Hiccup was just glad that, for the most part, everything was fine.

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**Well I hope you enjoyed that!**

**If you need more of my work right now, feel free to check out my new RotBTFD story by clicking on my username.**

**Now remember, you have my permission to borrow my characters and ideas in stories of your own as long as you give credit where credit is due and let me know about it so I can follow along!**

**Have a nice day! **


	19. Chapter 19: AUTHOR'S CHALLENGE

**I CHALLENGE YOU!:**

**To commemorate their victory in Annihilation of the Pears, and other feats, I thought it would be nice idea to feature a couple of poems written by my fans in the story and have the kingdom's bards sing them in the story.**

**I will write one, but I am a lousy poet, so I figured that I should feature a couple good ones.**

**To submit, just send me a PM featuring the poem.**

**You all have until Monday to write your poems and submit them. YOU WILL RECEIVE THE CREDIT YOU DESERVE!**

**Please review if you accept the challenge.**


	20. Chapter 20: Coronation

**Chapter Nineteen: Coronation**

**So, we're in the falling action of the story, and after this story I'll be officially out of ideas for my Dragonstone tales. This has been fun, and I think I'll miss working on them, and that is why you all have permission to borrow from me for Dragonstone stories of your own. I hope you all can respect my wishes to end this series after this story.**

**Now, onto the most poetic chapter of this story! **

Hiccup didn't know whether to laugh or cry when he saw his father's condition. On one hand he was sympathetic to his injury, but on the other he wanted to make a 'like father like son' joke. After all, what would be the odds that out of all the possible injuries Stoick could've sustained, he would lose a chunk of his left leg? He also noticed that Gobber had already fixed Stoick up with a false leg.

Sitting by Stoick's bedside were a few young bards listening to the former Chief tell them stories of his own conquests and those of his son's. In their books, they scribbled away notes of their inspiration.

The one sitting in the middle of the group stood up to shake Hiccup's hand.

"It's an honor to meet you. I am Kay Black." The bard stated. It was hard to tell anything physical about the young bard. Kay Black's head and face were concealed with a large hood and a half-face mask, so the only defining feature on the bard's face was the chin. The bard's voice was also fairly low for a woman, and slightly high for a man, not to mention the cloak and robes the Kay Black wore made the bard's figure indeterminable.

Another bard was clearly a woman of incredible beauty, by the name of River Lily. Whether by birth or by choosing be her name, Hiccup found it to be lovely as her face and her raven hair. Unlike Kay Black, she wore an elegant dress of midnight blue, to coordinate with her eyes, and silver trimmings.

The third bard was a tall handsome man, uniformed vaguely like a court jester. With humor and mischief in his eyes, Hiccup wondered if he was taking his job seriously. His name was Melbourne. At his side sat one more woman, also of fair beauty, in dressings of red, gold, and blue, and she would flinch should Hiccup say 'pears'. In all her fair beauty, her name was Jenny Granger.

"Forgive me if I seem rude, but what are you all doing here?" Hiccup asked.

"King Hubert and Prince Salomon requested that we honor your tribe with songs and poems during the feast after the coronation." Kay Black replied. The bard looked between the Dragon Chief and Toothless before adding: "I gives me great pleasure to meet the Dragon Chief and his mighty Night Fury."

"Thank you. Now, if you don't mind, I'd like to speak to my Dad." Hiccup replied.

"Fair Dragon Chief, we're here because the King and Prince desire to honor your courage and your tribe. We weren't able to reach you, so we figured that your father would enjoy some company." River Lily replied.

"We'd be happy to leave him if you're willing to tell us your stories to inspire us." Kay Black told Hiccup. Seriously, what gender was this character? The confusion was driving Hiccup a little crazy; but he still kept his face cool and asked them: "That depends, where do you want me to start?"

Melbourne stepped up, and told Hiccup: "You could start with your wedding."

Hiccup and Stoick smiled, recalling the odd night. Stoick laid back and listened, as Hiccup told his tale.

Ω £ Ω

In the morning after that, Salomon was released from the dungeons after he was deemed not dangerous, and before Hiccup he pleaded to make his arm whole again.

"I'd be happy to help you out; but since your injury is your sister's trophy, I suggest that you ask her for permission to have my help." Hiccup told him. He knew that Salomon's sister would know the price for healing Salomon would be. Hiccup would have to reveal Salomon's inner dragon and then return him to human again in order to be healed.

So, with Claudette's grant, they headed outside to the courtyard, Claudette was trying to keep a straight face, but the funny images in her head made it hard.

Hiccup took Salomon's hand and discharged his magic to reveal Salomon's inner dragon, and Claudette now had the best laugh of her life! The creature he became was a rose pink Terrible Terror.

"At least your arm is healed." Hiccup told him through his giggles. He and Claudette had their laugh, and Hiccup returned him to human form again.

Ω £ Ω

On a morning a few days later, Astrid and Anora were putting up a fuss.

"Come on, I don't want to wear a dress!"

"I know, but it's for the crowning ceremony, please put it on." Hiccup replied.

"Don't you love me?"

"Of course I do, but please put the dress on." Hiccup pressed.

"I won't do it!"

"Astrid, stop this, come on it will look beautiful on you." Hiccup told her. He looked off to the side and saw that Anora was hiding behind Sapphire. With a smug on her face, she turned to pick up Anora by the tunic and hauled her over to Hiccup.

"Thanks, Sapphire." He told her as he began fitting the stubborn Anora into a small dress. Astrid, begrudgingly, put the gown on but refused to put her hair in any other style than her trademark braid. Hiccup didn't press her to try something else. To him, Salomon didn't deserve the full respect of the Vikings for what he did to Hiccup, however the coronation was the reason they were there in the first place.

"MOOOMMM!" Midnightfire screeched. The Haddocks looked over to the Storm Fury hatchling and found her in a tight hold from Sapphire as the mother dragon was washing her hatchling. When Midnightfire wouldn't stop squirming, Sapphire's pupils narrowed a bit in frustration and, with teeth retracted, she bit Midnightfire's ear and snapped: "Hold still!"

It was a long morning for them.

Ω £ Ω

While Fishlegs and Claudette were getting ready for the coronation, Whoshadow and Vengeance took their children out for a flight, but the Skrill hatchlings spotted an open window to the buffet for after the crowning ceremony, and already on that buffet were all sorts of goodies for the dragons, including bananas, fried fish, and custard. They also recalled hearing that the ceremony was to take place not far from there.

Looking at the buffet, Enya looked over to her siblings and asked: "Thorn, Vastra, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Her siblings smirked.

Ω £ Ω

Queen Celeste was weeping when she saw her daughter enter the ceremonial hall as the princess she remembered her to be. Claudette wasn't thrilled to be golden-haired again, but she figured that her mother had the right to see her as a princess again before returning to Berk.

"Claudette, you look so beautiful!" Queen Celeste exclaimed.

"Thanks Mom, you look great yourself." She replied. Both women were elegantly dressed, and King (soon to be former King) Hubert, was also clothed with grandeur. Nodding to each other the royal family took their places as the guests and Vikings filed in and took their seats. There they sat, only to stand up again once Prince Salomon entered the room in his most elaborate garb.

He knelt before their Archbishop, waiting to be crowned. It was just before the Archbishop was about to place the crown on Salomon's head, when, seemingly, out of nowhere came Vastra, Enya, and Thorn, with a present in their claws. Flitter, flutter went their wings, and once over his head, the claws they slipped, a present full of sweet things!

"GAAAHHH!" Salomon screamed. He stood upright with a start and was promptly surrounded by the sound of uproarious laughter. He audience found his cloak coated, shirt splattered, face flushed, and head heaped all in custard!

Jokers, they jeered, sovereignties sniggered, and the poets' pants were nearly pissed; all in to see their precious Prince predominantly clothed in custard!

Keeping himself in good humor, he turned back to the huffing Archbishop. Humbly, the Prince bowed before the Bishop, as a subtle laugh left their lips. Over his brow the crown was bestowed, and upwards Salomon stood. His audience clapped for the newly crowned King.

Ω £ Ω

A fresh batch of banana custard had been made, and as the dragons relished their treat with fish, as they listened to the orchestra's fine music beat.

Not long after everyone was served with food and wine, it was time for the bard's to come out and perform their pieces.

"Here come four fine poets, to honor our helpful heroes: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, and his people." New King Salomon called out.

One by one, the four bards filed in. The Vikings' attention turned away from their tables as the first, fair Jenny Granger, dressed in blue, red and gold, handed a flutist a score and stepped onto her stage. In a voice so fair she announced: "Here is my piece, named: _The Stories Three_."

The Stories Three: By Charm Caster 1127

1st Story

_A loved one raised from the dead  
Saved by the gods, who uncut the thread  
A Dragonstone to show his bond  
Toothless won't have to wait long_

Two Furies come to a changed mans aid  
who use to fight them during a raid  
a Bewilderbeast that saved the day  
A silent one to show the way

Reviews, chant, reviews scream  
and Hiccup wonders: is this a dream?  
Shots of fire beams of light  
the last one from a dragon of the night

The dragons words speak clear and loud  
and all of Berk wonder just how'd,  
the dragons made the stone  
that let their chief become on of there own

2nd Story  
_Little hatchlings one by one  
first Toothless had Midnightfire  
then Astrid went and layed an egg  
I think Hiccup has broken!  
Sweet Anora was her name  
with a tiny ring of scales  
her eyes were of a dragon's kind  
and soon the two girls bonded!_

3rd Story  
_Pears, pears, evil pears  
Cuttleclaw is doomed!  
Once Hiccup gets into his lair  
we will make pears go kaboom!_

Lighting strikes, claws of steel,  
Dagur, Drago, and Cuttleclaw,  
their death is one I want to feel  
they've broken ever single law

Oh, Whoshadow and Charmcast...  
are very, very Angry

Honored, humored, and happy, her audience applauded. Flutist and Fair poet took their bows, and the poet bid her bye-bye. The flutist set aside her score, and the orchestra awaited the next eager bard.

Somewhat stumbling in a half-drunken stupor, up came jester-ly dressed Melbourne with a mandolin onto his stage. His lines and limericks either funny or serious, he strummed his mandolin and sang:

Dragonstone Limericks: By Mikowmer

_Yesterday we beat our most dastardly foe,  
The name of Cuttleclaw, by which he did go.  
Yet He was merely a demon,  
That has soundly been beaten,  
By our brave hero Hiccup, and co._

_2.  
The Vessel of Fear had a weakness,  
Which is quite strange in its uniqueness,  
Any sort of laugh,  
Whether whole or a half,  
Would reduce it in its great meanness._

_3.  
So just in case the Vessel of Fear  
Just happens to be in this room right here,  
I do not spread rumor,  
My goal is good humor,  
No matter how rude it may appear._

_4.  
There once was a Timberjack named Mikow,  
Who was quite good in this battle, you know.  
Yet despite his resistance  
To a certain type of sickness,  
Too many eels made him ill, oh, no..._

_5._  
(He looked over to the Vikings gratefully): _Our heroes, our heroes, how much can I say, (beat)_  
(Then he suddenly looked appalled): _How appalled I am by your display._  
F_or you drink quite a lot,  
Which leaves me distraught,  
For my tankard of mead has gone astray._

_6.  
Continuing on from the previous refrain,  
I do believe you are a pain,  
For the food is all gone,  
From the fish to the swan,  
And now I am left with the grain_.

_7.  
A curious phenomenon, we have here seen,  
Wrought by a demon, whom was quite the fiend.  
A big pear tree,  
Was destroyed by thee, _(he gestured to Whoshadow)  
_The wonderful Whoshadow, _(he started edging off stage, bowing, grinning like a Cheshire cat) _who is... quite mean. _

He fled for life with a grin plastered on face as Whoshadow discharged a mild blasted bolt upon his butt.

Recovering from her laughter, fair River Lily handed her piece to the orchestra, and proceeded to the stage. As the strings sounded, and fingers fluttered, proudly stood River Lily as she sang her beautiful ballad:

Wrong body, Right Soul: By River Lily

_Pale shined the moonlit night  
A monster's breath did delight  
He fought his way through the trees  
Wrong body, right soul_

The fire blade did not cut  
For death and pain were not wrought  
His aim was not to kill  
Wrong body, right soul

Sacrifice for the loved ones  
Sacrifice for the innocents  
Sacrifice for trapped ones  
Wrong body, right soul

Soul of a Dragon  
Trapped in a human  
Soul of the humble  
Trapped in a leader  
Right soul, right man

The sheer beauty of the piece nearly reduced the audience to sobs. Hiccup blushed but still held his goblet high to cheer the beautiful bard as she stepped from her stage.

Now was time for the final bard, the mysterious, masked, musician named Kay Black. With a face no one has seen, a voice with an unintelligible key, and black robes to shroud shape. The whole of the orchestra was shared sheets, before the shrouded shape stepped on the stage to sing a song.

***Disclaimer: This poem is a parody of Blind as a Bat by MeatLoaf, so it has a set melody. If you are unfamiliar with the song, I suggest you open a tab to YouTube and listen to it so the melody sticks in your head. Otherwise, you'll lose something. **

The score began at the piano's sound, and the masked musician stood in a proud stance and sang:

Strong as Dragons: By UnknownBlackHand

_You're not afraid to show us who you are  
And he is not ashamed of his life _  
_Though you've walked alone, down this cold and cruel life's road _  
_You've always felt your strength in your heart _

_With every stroke you rise and fall _  
_With everything to lose you end up giving it all _  
_When the darkness gets in  
We scream out and your light sets us free _

_You're not afraid of the them no more _  
_You're not afraid if they're bad or good _  
_You used to flee at the devil's flames _  
_If you could free them to skies you would _

_You're not afraid to shed all their fears _  
_You're not afraid of the flames you see _  
_You're going up these skies right now _  
_They're goin' down 'cause they believe _

_Your courage is strong, strong as dragons_  
_The way that you're leading foes (to) hell like that _  
_Your courage is strong, strong as dragons _  
_  
You're not afraid when they kick you down _  
_We're not afraid when we start to bleed _  
_You're not afraid if you live or die _  
_We're not afraid 'cause we believe _

_His heart is pure, pure as the gold  
The way that he's keeping you in his hold  
His heart is pure, pure as the gold _

_And I wish that I could give you something in return _  
_For the precious time you've given on the tears we've never earned  
For flying out to help us 'cross the oceans of our curse_

_And in the end you'll finally see _  
_That, Hiccup, you've done everything we possibly can't _  
_You'd do it again 'cause you know you're everything that we need _

_We're not afraid of the truth no more _  
_We're not afraid of secrets you hid _  
_We're_ _not afraid of the price of our sins _  
_'Cause you paid for the wrongs we did _

_We're not afraid of the things we know _  
_You're just a son god the world calls Loki_

_The final scales on the final change _  
_Will be shields 'cause we believe _

_Your courage is strong, strong as dragons  
The way that you're leading foes (to) hell like that  
Your courage is strong, strong as dragons _

_His heart is kind, ours are painted black  
The way me forgive us and just like that. _  
_His heart is kind, ours are black_

_Your courage is strong, strong as dragons  
The way that you're leading foes (to) hell like that  
Your courage is strong, strong as dragons_

*******_That_**** is the reason why I write parodies!**

Thus, the fourth bard was finished and bowed after the piece. After a pause, the four praised, proud, poets joined at the stage for one last bow. Their audiences applauded, and for their great contributions, they were allowed a fair share of the feast.

"The man, Melbourne seemed like a fine fellow." Claudette stated.

"He has his charm and his humor, but in a half-drunken stupor, he can be a bit of a half-wit." Celeste told her.

"He read his writing well, Mother, I find it more worth-while than anything I ever wrote." Salomon replied.

"So, Hiccup, which one of the poets did you like the most?" Hubert asked.

"All of them were delightful; each had lines that were bold and daring, and it makes it hard to decide." He replied.

"I'd probably like Kay Black's more if there was a face to place on the bard." Astrid stated.

"As far as we're concerned, the mask the bard bears is the face the bard was born to bear." Celeste replied.

Ω £ Ω

After the feast it was time to dance. Gobber was with Cassius, and the married couples joined together too. To a waltz, maiden fair, wandered up to Snotlout's chair. She was the prostitute he hired to heal his broken heart after the loss of his father.

"May I have this dance?" Snotlout asked.

"I save you all my dances. You were my last love, and a parting gift you left for me, is to be the mother of your baby." She replied.

The wonderful waltz took a halt for a while. Faces turned to Snotlout all of them dumbfounded, and the faces doubled up with looks from the dragons with their eyes wide.

Even though away from home he was, the kingdom's laws he must abide.

And they insist that he must make the mother his bride.

Ω £ Ω

**_PLEASE PRAISE THE PROUD POETS!_**

**HISTORICAL TREAT: In case you noticed the alliteration going on, here's a little fun fact: in the days of Ye Olde, bards recited poems not through writing but through alliteration rather than rhyming, but that doesn't mean that lines occasionally didn't rhyme from time to time. Normally they were made up on the spot, but the bards in the story wrote theirs down. Make of that what you will. I've been hitting the medieval literature rather heavily lately.**

**Also, thank you all for your submissions, if your poem didn't make it then I will feature it later. I enjoyed them all. Now _PLEASE FANS AND GUESTS_, reward the fine writers with the praise they deserve!**


	21. Chapter 21: The Voyage Home

**Chapter Twenty: The Voyage Home**

**Well, aside from the Epilogue, this will be the final chapter. I hope that this will be worth it.**

Snotlout's wedding was quick and fairly tasteful, given the circumstances. The Vikings were eager to get the ceremony over-with just so they could go home, but that didn't mean that they didn't take the opportunity to eat with gusto and get a bit drunk.

During the wedding, the four bards had found dragons to bond with: Melbourne with Mikow, River Lily with Snow, Jenny Granger with Rogue, and Kay Black made a special bond with the Albino Alpha White Light.

"Out of all the dragons, you managed to bond with White Light." Hiccup said to Kay Black during the reception.

"I like uniqueness, and you can't get more unique than an Albino Night Fury. He's absolutely gorgeous and I will treat him well. I will live with his nest, as I've never been settled down in a house. It's an occupational hazard as a wandering bard." The masked poet replied while scratching White Light's chin. Hiccup gave all four bards quick lectures about each of their dragons before looking over their gifts from the kingdom. King Salomon aided his father in keeping the promise he gave Hiccup for the aid of his people in defeating Cuttleclaw, and right now they were looking over two ships. They were so grand and so large in comparison to the ships they came in they just left their own ships there for the kingdom's use.

With a final goodbye, and a kiss from Cassius to Gobber, the Vikings and their dragons boarded the two ships and set sail for home.

Not thirty minutes after departure did Hiccup have to go and break up a marital dispute between Snotlout and his wife. With his pupils narrowed into slits, Hiccup split them up. He really didn't want to get involved with them, so he sent Snotlout down to the ship's dragon hold. A spot the people reserved for the dragons with small rooms to keep their supplies. Hiccup didn't even make eye contact with Snotlout's new wife as he walked away.

Ω £ Ω

Hiccup climbed up the main mast of the ship to the crow's nest. The sea air was feeling great on his face, and when he looked up, he saw Toothless flying alongside the Thunder Queen and his whole family, including Anora in her Stormcutter form. He was so entranced by the wonderful view that he wasn't even aware that for the first time in a while, his tattoo of scales was itching.

Looking up again, Hiccup spotted Astrid on Stormfly; his wife took a great leap from her saddle, and landed right in the crow's nest with Hiccup. There, they just laid down and looked at the sky where their dragons were flying so gracefully.

"It feels great to finally head home." Astrid stated.

"No offense to Claudette and her homeland, but I'm not looking forward to going back there anytime soon. I don't care if Cuttleclaw is gone, the place will always be the one place where you really turned against me. I swear, the past events are going to haunt me in my nightmares!" Hiccup replied.

"Yeah, I think they'll haunt mine too." Astrid told him. They got up to their feet, and saw nothing amiss, nothing but peaceful people, happy dragons, and a setting sun.

"A night like this sure puts me in a 'loving' mood." Astrid told Hiccup with a kinky shake of her hips. They locked lips and held each other in a loving embrace in the light of a rising moon. Hiccup's heart picked up its pace and his veins surged with blood flow. At first he thought that it was just arousal, but then his muscles tensed up and, he broke away from Astrid.

"Hiccup, what is it?" She asked.

"Oh, come on! _NOW_ of all places?" He exclaimed while looking down at his hands. His nails were growing into claws, and his scales were covering his skin.

"Wow, talk about bad timing for what I had in mind." Astrid grumbled as she realized that it was Hiccup's Dragon Night. He realized that the crow's nest wouldn't be big enough to hold a Storm Fury, so he climbed onto the mast's yard and hung upside down by coiling his tail around the yard; and he remained upside down throughout the rest of his metamorphosis. Astrid couldn't help but giggle at the sight of him. He looked so cute with his big eyes and huge wings flopping about. Hiccup gave her a fake glare for laughing at him and dropped himself. He stretched his wings and ascended back up towards Astrid. Gently, he picked her up in his arms, held her close, and took her for a romantic flight.

"Hiccup, I remember that I said some nasty things to you as a vampire. I just want to make sure that you know that as myself I would never say anything like that. I love you dearly." Astrid stated. Hiccup rolled over, his back facing the ground, nuzzled her hair, and told her: "I know, and I love you too."

Hiccup landed on the deck with her and called Anora down. She came down at his call, and Midnightfire followed after her. Pretty soon the whole Night Fury family descended and grouped together on the ground. It was a lovely grouping, and it was simply adorable when they were all curled up to go to sleep. Even though Toothless and Sapphire were laying next to each other, Lady Anora and Zephyr curled up right next to him, Lady Anora even extended a wing over him as if he were still her hatchling.

"Mom, I'm an Alpha dragon now!" He complained.

"You're still my beautiful baby Shadeghost." She replied. She wrapped a foreleg around him and began washing his face.

"MMMOOOOOOMMMM!" Toothless whined.

"Quiet, Shadeghost, you'll wake the Vikings up!" Zephyr snapped in a hushed tone. Midnightfire was just laughing at the scene, until her mother decided to give her a bath.

The scene amused Hiccup and Astrid; and during that while, Anora was trying to back away a bit in case her father was getting ideas. When Hiccup eventually looked over to her, he pulled her closer to him with his tail and curled around her for the night. Normally, Astrid would've slept in her cabin, but tonight, she stayed on the deck with her family and the Night Furies.

Ω £ Ω

Upon awakening, Berk was within sight; and the Thunder Queen and her nest had flown off. Hiccup woke up with his ears perked and sent Whoshadow's family, Anora, and, Midnightfire to fly ahead to tell the people that the Dragon Chief and his crew were coming home. They were on a new ship and Hiccup didn't what to be attacked by the people who've stayed behind and the Berserkers who were island-sitting for him.

Goosefoot was overjoyed to be reunited with Vengeance again, and to see his lovely family of Skrills again, and not a moment later, Vastra, Enya, and Thorn went off to stir up some trouble in a yak farm.

By the time the new ship docked, Hiccup was human again, and he was promptly greeted by Goosefoot.

"We had no troubles while you were away, Dragon Chief." He reported.

"Really now? Well I can't have better news than that!" Hiccup replied with all seriousness, although he knew that he took all of the main troublemakers with him, sometimes people stirred up trouble of their own.

"So how was your trip?" Goosefoot asked.

"Terrifying." Stoick told him bluntly as he passed by. Goosefoot glanced down and saw that Stoick was wearing a peg leg now. He left with two feet. With wide eyes, Goosefoot looked back to Hiccup.

"He wasn't kidding. I'll tell the whole story of our adventures in the Great Hall." He replied, and then he escorted his Berserker friend to said hall, with friends and family following behind them. In there the people laughed in joy and screamed in fear (especially when they found out that Snotlout had reproduced) as Hiccup spoke, but still they were happy to know that all was well with the travelers and their dragons.

Ω £ Ω

**And so here concludes Of Claws and Dragonstones. I will write up an epilogue, but the main tale ends here. Thanks to all of you who've participated and given me your support. This has been fun. Please continue to look for my name, because I will continue on writing.**

**Thank you. **


	22. Chapter 22: Epilogue and Treats

**Epilogue and Treats**

For nine months Hiccup had to keep Snotlout and his new bride from getting into marital spats. He complained about how disgusted he was after being puked on due to her morning sickness, and Hiccup threatened to reveal his inner dragon to the village again if he didn't stop. Hiccup didn't like it when Astrid vomited all over him when she was pregnant with Anora, but he knew that she was the one in the most pain, she was the size of a Gronkle and had to put up with a baby kicking her. So Snotlout was a real skeleton in his family closet.

After threatening Snotlout about his inner dragon, Snotlout took it upon himself to try and be a better husband. He even resorted to trading a sword and a spare helmet for _pounds_ of chocolate and for a dress to satisfy his wife's cravings and to help her feel pretty.

She was actually a fairly attractive woman. She had red hair, copper eyes, a slightly tanned complexion, and her name was Virginia, ironically. Of course, for the job as a hooker, she had to be beautiful.

Now that Snotlout was making an effort in being a better husband, their marriage was getting better. They could go for days without getting into a spat that wasn't fueled by out-of-control hormones.

Virginia gave birth to a baby girl and named her: Winifred. At first Snotlout was disappointed that he didn't get a son, but he grew to love Winifred with all his heart and actually turned out to be one of the best fathers on Berk. He would often change her soiled diapers, give her baths, and feed her without having to be asked. He grew more modest to set an example for her, but he displayed enough pride to show that he would not be pushed around to also show an example. With that, Virginia learned to love Snotlout and Snotlout was now more likeable because of it.

"Who would've thought that all Snotlout needed to stop being such an arrogant muttonhead was to reproduce?" Astrid said to Hiccup.

"Believe me, I'm impressed too. I'm actually thinking of rewarding him with one of my Dragon Nights. He has changed so much that he can't possibly be the pink and yellow Deadly Nadder he was before." He replied. Astrid grinned after recalling how humiliated Snotlout was after that transformation.

Hiccup was somewhat surprised when Snotlout accepted his offer for one of his Dragon Nights, but, like Hiccup, Snotlout was confident that his inner dragon had changed. Sure enough, he went from a pink and yellow Deadly Nadder to a blue Monstrous Nightmare missing one of the claws on his wing, but at least he would actually be able to fly. So Snotlout was pretty happy that night. He spent it racing and trying to fight Hookfang before going to sleep.

Ω £ Ω

Hiccup was in for another surprise not long after Winifred was born…

Stoick had decided that the peg leg wasn't working for him, and he knew that one way to get his lost limb back was to become a dragon and have it grow back through the magic. He got up late one night and hiked over to the community Dragonstone to change himself. Hiccup told him that he would be impressed with his inner dragon, so he didn't hesitate to go through with this plan.

Unfortunately, he was out fishing when Hiccup spread the word that it was one of his Dragon Nights, and Valka had forgotten to pass it on to him.

Stoick was amazed to find out that his inner dragon wasn't even native to the Archipelago! He eagerly spread his wings to take flight and savored the moment where he jumped to the sky using the brand new foot he grew. He found himself in complete bliss as he flew.

Hiccup was also flying in the area when he caught sight of a majestic rust-red Guardian, a dragon from the Western-European areas with four legs and an arrow-tipped tail! He hadn't seen one of them up close since he first met Claudette on the day she severed Astrid's foot and Whoshadow ate Drago as a Terrible Terror… Oh wait; she was a dragon for a few days after that. At any rate, it had been a while since Hiccup had last seen a Guardian, and he decided to confront the beast.

Stoick noticed the diving Night Fury (since he couldn't tell that the dragons was actually a Storm Fury) fairly last minute; in his surprise he released a jet of flames at the approaching dragon, and actually struck him.

Hiccup had no other choice to see this dragon as a threat and fight it away, and so he retaliated by firing a plasma blast.

If Stoick had paid attention to the color of the blast he would've figured in an instant as to whom the Fury was, but he didn't, and he charged the beast knowing full well that he was a larger creature than any Fury on Berk. He may not have been built for speed, but his were great, muscular, and strong, and so he was fast enough. He passed the Fury, but knowing who the possibilities were, he only scarred the Fury's chest with the arrow on his tail.

_Ouch! Damn, I've forgotten how destructive Guardian tails are!_ Hiccup thought.

The father and son battled like this into the dawn, and by now the villagers had woken up to the sounds of brawling dragons.

Down on the ground, Valka was worried sick. Her husband was not in bed where he should be, and she heard the frightful roaring outside. She could tell that one dragon was Hiccup, but she'd never heard the other one before. She quickly got dressed and grabbed her staff before running outside. Looking to the sky, she quickly found both of the dragons, her Storm Fury son, and a rest red Guardian. Hold on… That was the same color as Stoick's hair! It all fit, her husband was missing, and suddenly this strange dragon appears! Her husband and the new dragon were the same entity!

_Oh no, this won't end well if they don't break it up soon._ She thought. She woke up Shadowrath and Cloudjumper in case he had to intervene. Astrid and the rest of her household grouped by Valka to watch the event.

"Who is Hiccup fighting?" Astrid asked, looking at the strange dragon.

"His father." Valka replied bluntly.

"That's _STOICK!?"_ Astrid exclaimed. Their dragons looked up in shock and awe. They never really expected Stoick, the living embodiment of what every Viking man should be, to turn himself into a dragon!

"He never got used to the peg leg, so he must've decided to get his foot back through the community Dragonstone." Valka replied.

Hiccup and Stoick collided into each other, hit the ground and rolled across the village in a black and red wheel. Stoick kicked Hiccup off of him, and the Dragon Chief collided into one of the walls of his house, giving Stoick the time he needed to get to his feet. When he turned his attention back to his opponent, he finally found out whom he was fighting!

Hiccup got back to his feet and pounced to attack his own father again! He was actually _flying_ at him to attack!

Stoick reared up to his hind legs, spread his wings for balance, and boomed: "HICCUP!"

Hiccup's eyes widened in sudden realization that the dragon's voice was his father's. He landed clumsily before his father and stumbled to a halt. He looked up to Stoick with wide eyes, narrow pupils, jaw dropped as low as it could go, and his tongue flopped out a little bit. Nothing could've prepared him for seeing his father as a dragon!

He folded his wings and settled down before Hiccup, both of them were a bit embarrassed.

"Stoick, you look magnificent." Valka stated once she approached. Stoick nuzzled her, knowing that was how intimate he could be with her for a few days. Hiccup was still trying to find his voice and recollect his senses.

"Hiccup, are you alright?" Astrid asked, but he was still too shocked to respond. So Toothless gave him a whack with his tail and snapped Hiccup out of his trance.

"He's a _dragon_, Astrid! My father is a dragon, and he did that to himself!" Hiccup exclaimed.

"What's weird about Stoick being a dragon? He sees his son as a dragon fairly often, he's seen his daughter-in-law become a Stormcutter every once-in-a-while, his granddaughter is part dragon, and he was fairly calm when you turned his wife into a Black Typhoon." Astrid replied; Valka and their dragons nodded in agreement.

"I just never saw _this_ coming." Hiccup told her, gesturing to Stoick with his tail.

"Hiccup, it's not that unusual when you really think about it. Your father wasn't that happy with his false leg, and since he's a member of the tribe of claws and Dragonstones, it was bound to happen." Valka told him. She had her hand on Midnightfire's gauntlet.

Hiccup looked at his father with a straight face, taking in how much his inner dragon suited him. He looked over to his mother and nodded in agreement over her last statement.

"Well, Dad, based on how you handled the attacks, I've got to say that you make a good dragon."

"I've learned a few tricks from watching you, Son." Stoick replied.

When things calmed down, the whole Haddock family went out and enjoyed a morning flight.

This is Berk. It's twelve days north of hopeless, and a few degrees south of freezing to death. It snows nine months of the year and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless; the people who live here are even more so; and to stay warm in this cold, we keep those who are dear to our hearts close by. We have fishing, hunting, a charming view of the sunsets, and dragon racing. Life here is amazing! That's the way it should be for the Hooligan tribe, the tribe of claws and Dragonstones!

Ω £ Ω

**_NOW FOR THE TREATS!_**

Ω £ Ω

Cursed Pears: By Dark Pen Writer

Once a long time ago  
Lived a powerful sorcerer  
Killing with one blow  
For his name was the Torturer

He killed all dragons  
Small and large  
And piled their hearts in his wagon  
Using them as his life energy charge

Loki oh great farther  
Cried his creations  
To kill ourselves than die in his hands we rather  
And Loki did hear from Odin's nation  
Asked Freya to turn him,  
Into a fruit pathetic and dim

So that day  
So that year  
To Freya curse the Torturer he may  
And change him into a PEAR!

Dragons finding that the man was now a tree  
Always loathed and never talked about  
Because the fruit beard a curse to all to see  
That all dragons tasted it like we taste sprouts

But it all changed in the battle  
For a crazed Skrill  
Blasted the trees like they were cattle  
And with a mad shrill  
Left nothing but splinters

∂ ß ∂

Short Verses: By Stormjumper

Hiccup,  
The fury eyed one,  
With a dragon form with a fire like the sun.

Toothless,  
Onyx Alpha,  
Regained his tail,  
A story for the sagas.

Astrid,  
One-footed warrior,  
Long memoried and strong,  
Her axe superior.

Stormfly,  
Blue Spike,  
Beware her tail,  
Lest she impale you on one of her pikes.

Stoick,  
Vast and powerful,  
Steadfast and boarheaded,  
His will forceful.

Valka,  
Dragon Vigilante  
Holding her staff,  
Her love for dragons plenty.

Cloudjumper,  
Four winged fighter  
With every year,  
His torrent (of flame) growing brighter.

Dagur,  
Deranged and hated,  
By the dragons will,  
He evaporated.

Drago,  
Dragoncloaked maniac,  
With his Bewilderbeast,  
He caused much panic.

Claudette,  
Princess no more,  
Also a foot stealer,  
Her old kingdom by the shore.

Whoshadow,  
Pear hater,  
Her thundering breath,  
Means her enemy's failure.

Anora,  
Daughter of the dragon chief,  
And the one footed one,  
When her mother was lost,  
She was wrought with grief.

Shadowrath,  
The blackest night,  
With red-violet eyes,  
And vice-like bite.

Sapphire,  
Azure eyed,  
Ferocious and rebellious,  
But by Toothless' laws she abided.

Cuttleclaw,  
Vampire-like man,  
Master of armies,  
Fallen by man.

Thunder Queen,  
Turbulent gale,  
Bringer of storms,  
Alpha of a nest,  
But not a male.

THE PEARS!  
Sickly and green,  
Horrifying taste,  
Whoshadow's nemesis,  
Will always be seen.

∂ ß ∂

Battle Among the Pears: By Shadowdragon1317

Dragons and humans  
Get up and cheer!  
For tonight, we celebrate  
The destruction of fear!

Snip! Snap!  
Crackle and crack!  
The monsters of hell  
Became the dragons' snack!

Chink! Chang!  
Clatter and Clang!  
The steel of man  
Made the battle bang!

Adventures past and present came  
Foes of old released from hell  
Walked the ground once again  
To cause our land to further dispel

Snip! Snap!  
Crackle and crack!  
The monsters of hell  
Became the dragons' snack!

Chink! Chang!  
Clatter and Clang!  
The steel of man  
Made the battle bang!

From the scent of burning pears,  
The Dragon Chief led the charge  
Men and monsters stared in awe  
As he took on the monster large!

Snip! Snap!  
Crackle and crack!  
The monsters of hell  
Became the dragons' snack!

Chink! Chang!  
Clatter and Clang!  
The steel of man  
Made the battle bang!

Demons and devils, dragon and men  
Bathed in blood as war dragged on.  
Until the first tendrils of light broke the night  
And the battle concluded at dawn.

Snip! Snap!  
Crackle and crack!  
The monsters of hell  
Became the dragons' snack!

Chink! Chang!  
Clatter and Clang!  
The steel of man  
Made the battle bang!

Now we all stand gathered here  
around the fires and feasts galore  
Warriors cheering victory  
And partying like never before!

Snip! Snap!  
Crackle and crack!  
The monsters of hell  
Became the dragons' snack!

Chink! Chang!  
Clatter and Clang!  
The steel of man  
Made the battle bang

Ω £ Ω

**So concludes the Dragonstone series! Now here are the final results for the character's inner dragons!**

**1.****Hiccup: Storm Fury**

**2.****Astrid: Stormcutter**

**3.****Fishlegs: Flightmare**

**4.****Claudette: Guardian (although by now it is most likely a Skrill)**

**5.****Snotlout: Deadly Nadder/ Monstrous Nightmare**

**6.****Ruffnut: Fireworm Queen**

**7.****Tuffnut: Typhoomerang**

**8.****Valka: Black Typhoon**

**9.****Stoick: Guardian**

**Can't get enough UnknownBlackHand? Well I am also writing up The Tale of Whoshadow, the backstory of our favorite insane, pear-hating, badass Skrill. Check it out!**


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